Frontal Eye Field Neurons with Spatial Representations Predicted by Their Subcortical Input
Frontal Eye Field Neurons with Spatial Representations Predicted by Their Subcortical Input
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.4906-08.2009
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发表时间：
2009-04-22
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Sommer, Marc A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Crapse, Trinity B.;Sommer, Marc A.
额叶眼场（FEF）是一个涉及眼动控制认知方面的皮层结构。FEF中的神经元与大多数大脑皮层中的神经元一样，主要代表对侧空间。它们对对侧视野中的视觉刺激和对这些刺激所做的扫视眼球运动进行激发。然而，许多FEF神经元参与复杂的功能，需要灵活的空间表示，如转移感受野和矢量减法。这样的功能需要了解所有的空间，包括同侧半野。FEF如何获得同侧信息？在这里，我们提供的证据表明，同侧信息的来源之一可能是在中脑的相反的上级丘（SC）。我们在生理上识别出FEF中接收来自对侧SC、同侧SC或两者输入的神经元。我们发现了一个惊人的结构-功能关系：FEF神经元的反应场的偏侧性预测其SC输入的偏侧性。从对侧SC输入的FEF神经元具有同侧场，而从同侧SC输入的神经元具有对侧场。从两个SC输入的FEF神经元具有可以指向任何方向的侧化场。结果表明，来自两个SC的信号为每个FEF提供了关于所有视觉空间的信息，这是更高级别的感觉运动计算的先决条件。
The frontal eye field (FEF) is a cortical structure involved in cognitive aspects of eye movement control. Neurons in the FEF, as in most of cerebral cortex, primarily represent contralateral space. They fire for visual stimuli in the contralateral field and for saccadic eye movements made to those stimuli. Yet many FEF neurons engage in sophisticated functions that require flexible spatial representations such as shifting receptive fields and vector subtraction. Such functions require knowledge about all of space, including the ipsilateral hemifield. How does the FEF gain access to ipsilateral information? Here, we provide evidence that one source of ipsilateral information may be the opposite superior colliculus (SC) in the midbrain. Wephysiologically identified neurons in the FEF that receive input from the opposite SC, same-side SC, or both. We found a striking structure-function relationship: the laterality of the response field of an FEF neuron was predicted by the laterality of its SC inputs. FEF neurons with input from the opposite SC had ipsilateral fields, whereas neurons with input from the same-side SC had contralateral fields. FEF neurons with input from both SCs had lateralized fields that could point in any direction. The results suggest that signals from the two SCs provide each FEF with information about all of visual space, a prerequisite for higher level sensorimotor computations.