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Attention governs action in the primate frontal eye field.

ABSTRACT: While the motor and attentional roles of the frontal eye field (FEF) are well documented, the relationship between them is unknown. We exploited the known influence of visual motion on the apparent positions of targets, and measured how this illusion affects saccadic eye movements during FEF microstimulation. Without microstimulation, saccades to a moving grating are biased in the direction of motion, consistent with the apparent position illusion. Here we show that microstimulation of spatially aligned FEF representations increases the influence of this illusion on saccades. Rather than simply impose a fixed-vector signal, subthreshold stimulation directed saccades away from the FEF movement field, and instead more strongly in the direction of visual motion. These results demonstrate that the attentional effects of FEF stimulation govern visually guided saccades, and suggest that the two roles of the FEF work together to select both the features of a target and the appropriate movement to foveate it.

SUBMITTER: Schafer RJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2129094 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Attention governs action in the primate frontal eye field.

Schafer Robert J RJ Moore Tirin T

Neuron 20071101 3

While the motor and attentional roles of the frontal eye field (FEF) are well documented, the relationship between them is unknown. We exploited the known influence of visual motion on the apparent positions of targets, and measured how this illusion affects saccadic eye movements during FEF microstimulation. Without microstimulation, saccades to a moving grating are biased in the direction of motion, consistent with the apparent position illusion. Here we show that microstimulation of spatially ...[more]

PMID: 17988636

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Project description:Daily life often requires the coordination of our actions with those of another partner. After 50 years (1968-2018) of behavioral neurophysiology of motor control, the neural mechanisms that allow such coordination in primates are unknown. We studied this issue by recording cell activity simultaneously from dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) of two male interacting monkeys trained to coordinate their hand forces to achieve a common goal. We found a population of "joint-action cells" that discharged preferentially when monkeys cooperated in the task. This modulation was predictive in nature, because in most cells neural activity led in time the changes of the "own" and of the "other" behavior. These neurons encoded the joint-performance more accurately than "canonical action-related cells", activated by the action per se, regardless of the individual versus interactive context. A decoding of joint-action was obtained by combining the two brains' activities, using cells with directional properties distinguished from those associated to the "solo" behaviors. Action observation-related activity studied when one monkey observed the consequences of the partner's behavior, i.e., the cursor's motion on the screen, did not sharpen the accuracy of joint-action cells' representation, suggesting that it plays no major role in encoding joint-action. When monkeys performed with a non-interactive partner, such as a computer, joint-action cells' representation of the other (non-cooperative) behavior was significantly degraded. These findings provide evidence of how premotor neurons integrate the time-varying representation of the self-action with that of a co-actor, thus offering a neural substrate for successful visuomotor coordination between individuals.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The neural bases of intersubject motor coordination were studied by recording cell activity simultaneously from the frontal cortex of two interacting monkeys, trained to coordinate their hand forces to achieve a common goal. We found a new class of cells, preferentially active when the monkeys cooperated, rather than when the same action was performed individually. These "joint-action neurons" offered a neural representation of joint-behaviors by far more accurate than that provided by the "canonical action-related cells", modulated by the action per se regardless of the individual/interactive context. A neural representation of joint-performance was obtained by combining the activity recorded from the two brains. Our findings offer the first evidence concerning neural mechanisms subtending interactive visuomotor coordination between co-acting agents.

Dataset Information

Attention governs action in the primate frontal eye field.

Publications

Attention governs action in the primate frontal eye field.

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