SACCADE TARGET SELECTION-FRONTAL CORTEX

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of our research is to understand how the visual system decides where to look. The activity of multiple neurons will be monitored simultaneously in monkeys performing visual search tasks designed to dissociate visual processing from saccade preparation. The frontal eye field will be studied because it is situated anatomically to sample the outcome of visual processing to orient attention and produce motor commands to orient gaze. Patterns of neural activity will be analyzed to evaluate specific hypotheses about how visual information is encoded for target selection among pools of neurons (Aim 1), to describe how sensory-motor mapping occurs between visual and saccade neurons (Aim 2) and to determine how short-term and long-term experience influences saccade target selection (Aim 3). Understanding how the brain selects visual stimuli for action is necessary to understand the causes of impaired visual behavior.