Contribution of the monkey frontal eye field to covert visual attention
Contribution of the monkey frontal eye field to covert visual attention
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.3336-05.2006
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发表时间：
2006-04-19
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Olivier, E
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Wardak, C;Ibos, G;Olivier, E
长期以来，额叶视野（FEF）一直被认为是参与自主眼跳运动执行的关键皮质区域。然而，最近的研究表明，FEF 也可能在引导注意力方面发挥作用。为了解决这个问题，我们通过在两只猕猴中多次显微注射蝇蕈醇（一种 GABA(A) 激动剂）来可逆地灭活 FEF，这两只猕猴对单个目标进行视觉引导的眼跳。 FEF 失活的影响也在一项隐蔽视觉搜索任务中进行了研究，该任务要求猴子在不进行任何眼球运动的情况下搜索多个干扰物中出现的目标。正如预期的那样，失活 FEF 会导致执行视觉引导扫视时的空间选择性缺陷，但它也改变了在不允许眼球运动时检测干扰物中出现的视觉目标的能力。这些结果使我们能够明确得出 FEF 参与动眼神经和注意力功能的结论。将目前的结果与在外侧顶叶内皮层区域进行的类似实验进行比较，发现了质量上不同的缺陷，表明这两个区域可能对选择性注意过程做出了不同的贡献。
The frontal eye field ( FEF) has long been regarded as a cortical area critically involved in the execution of voluntary saccadic eye movements. However, recent studies have suggested that the FEF may also play a role in orienting attention. To address this issue, we reversibly inactivated the FEF using multiple microinjections of muscimol, a GABA(A) agonist, in two macaque monkeys performing visually guided saccades to a single target. The effects of FEF inactivation were also studied in a covert visual search task that required monkeys to search for a target presented among several distractors without making any eye movements.As expected, inactivating the FEF caused spatially selective deficits in executing visually guided saccades, but it also altered the ability to detect a visual target presented among distractors when no eye movements were permitted. These results allow us to conclude definitively to an involvement of the FEF in both oculomotor and attentional functions. Comparison of the present results with a similar experiment conducted in the lateral intraparietal cortex area revealed qualitatively different deficits, suggesting that the two areas may make distinct contributions to selective attention processes.