Ensemble Neural Monitoring and Saccadic Control

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of the preceptor's research program is to elucidate the neural mechanisms that regulate the initiation and monitor the consequences of saccadic eye movements. Ensemble neural activity will be recorded from the frontal eye field (FEF) and supplementary eye field (SEF) of macaque monkeys performing a stop-signal task. This task permits identification of neural signals that control saccades and neural signals that monitor performance. The specific goals of this project are to investigate how movement-related signals in FEF are coordinated to control saccade initiation and how performance monitoring signals in SEF influence FEF to effect behavioral adjustments. These goals will be achieved by recording multiple neurons simultaneously within and across FEF and SEF. The strength of this proposal is the grounding of hypotheses about executive control in a tractable behavioral paradigm with a strong theoretical foundation and the well-established anatomy and physiology of the ocular motor system. The training goal is to develop expertise in cognitive theories of behavioral control and in methods of collecting and analyzing data from simultaneously-recorded neurons across cortical areas.