This is a revised application that has taken into account the comments of the referees who have evaluated the initial submission of the grant. In a separate section, a point-by-point response is made to the criticisms. The Preliminary Studies section has been expanded to include a series of pilot experiments we had carried out the past six months that deal with the central criticisms advanced by the referees and provide evidence that the projects proposed are feasible and are likely to lead to significant new understanding of the role areas V1 and V2 play in target selection with visually guided eye movements. This grant application replaces EY00676 entitled Parallel information processing in the visual system that we decided not to renew because the work under that grant has been largely completed and because the new discoveries we had made dictate a shift in our effort.
The aim of the proposed research is to determine what role areas V1 and V2 of the primate play in the selection of visual targets with saccadic eye movements. Rhesus monkeys will be trained on a variety of behavioral tasks to enable us to study their visual capacities and their ability to select visual targets with saccadic eye movements. Single-cell recordings, microstimulation, and the application of GABAergic neurotransmitter agonists and antagonists will be used to assess how areas V1 and V2 interact and how they contribute to the generation of saccadic eye movements to visual targets. The proposal is based on a recent set of findings from our laboratory that has established that these two areas are centrally involved in target selection with visually guided saccadic eye movements. The work has shown that electrical stimulation of the infragranular layers of V1 and V2 enhances the generation of saccadic eye movements to visual targets at very low current levels whereas stimulation of the supragranular layers interferes with target selection. In addition to clarifying the role of V1 and V2 in the generation of visually guided saccadic eye movements, the proposed research should have significant bearing on microstimulation prosthetics for the visually disadvantaged as it will specify the effects of microstimulation of different layers of the visual cortex and what roles various neurotransmitters play in the process.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY014884-02
Application #
6876487
Study Section
Central Visual Processing Study Section (CVP)
Program Officer
Oberdorfer, Michael
Project Start
2004-04-01
Project End
2009-03-31
Budget Start
2005-04-01
Budget End
2006-03-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$351,824
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
001425594
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02139
Schiller, Peter H; Slocum, Warren M; Kwak, Michelle C et al. (2011) New methods devised specify the size and color of the spots monkeys see when striate cortex (area V1) is electrically stimulated. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108:17809-14
Schiller, Peter H; Slocum, Warren M; Jao, Brian et al. (2011) The integration of disparity, shading and motion parallax cues for depth perception in humans and monkeys. Brain Res 1377:67-77
Tehovnik, Edward J; Slocum, Warren M; Smirnakis, Stelios M et al. (2009) Microstimulation of visual cortex to restore vision. Prog Brain Res 175:347-75
Tehovnik, Edward J; Slocum, Warren M (2009) Background luminance affects the detection of microampere currents delivered to macaque striate cortex. Eur J Neurosci 30:263-71
Tehovnik, Edward J; Slocum, Warren M (2009) Depth-dependent detection of microampere currents delivered to monkey V1. Eur J Neurosci 29:1477-89
Schiller, Peter H; Tehovnik, Edward J (2008) Visual prosthesis. Perception 37:1529-59
Schiller, Peter H; Kendall, Geoffrey L; Slocum, Warren M et al. (2008) Conditions that alter saccadic eye movement latencies and affect target choice to visual stimuli and to electrical stimulation of area V1 in the monkey. Vis Neurosci 25:661-73
Schiller, Peter H; Slocum, Warren M; Weiner, Veronica S (2007) How the parallel channels of the retina contribute to depth processing. Eur J Neurosci 26:1307-21
Tehovnik, Edward J; Slocum, Warren M (2007) What delay fields tell us about striate cortex. J Neurophysiol 98:559-76
Chen, L Longtang; Tehovnik, Edward J (2007) Cortical control of eye and head movements: integration of movements and percepts. Eur J Neurosci 25:1253-64

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