NEURAL CONTROL OF VISUALLY GUIDED EYE MOVEMENTS

描述：（改编自申请人摘要。）在灵长类动物中， 平行的路径，一个涉及前眼领域和其他 后皮质和上级丘，已被证明是 参与视觉引导的扫视眼球运动的产生。 最近，另一个领域与视觉引导的眼球运动有关 控制 这个区域位于背内侧额叶皮层（DMFC）， 与前眼区和上级丘不同的是 似乎利用空间坐标编码扫视眼球运动 系统，一个代码，能够经历组织的变化， 这是长时间训练各种眼动任务的结果。 拟议工作的目的是描述功能 DMFC的组织;确定如何以及在多大程度上这一领域 视具体视觉指导的功能而定， 眼动任务;以确定该区域如何与先前的 确定了视觉引导眼球运动控制的两条平行路径; 并揭示在视觉引导的眼睛执行中出现的缺陷， 由于该区域的失活或损坏而导致的移动。 行为上， 将使用生理、病变、解剖和建模方法， 回答这些问题 这项工作将在恒河猴身上进行，它们的视觉和 眼科系统与人类相似，应该提供新的 了解神经结构和神经回路参与 控制视觉引导的眼球运动。

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from applicant's abstract.) In the primate two major parallel pathways, one involving the frontal eye fields and the other the posterior cortex and the superior colliculus, have been shown to be involved in the generation of visually guided saccadic eye movement. Recently another area has been implicated in visually guided eye movement control. This area, which resides in dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC), is unlike the frontal eye fields and the superior colliculus in that it appears to code saccadic eye movements utilizing a spatial coordinate system, a code that is capable of undergoing organization changes as a result of prolonged training on various eye-movement tasks. The purpose of the proposed work is to characterize the functional organization of DMFC; to establish how and to what extent this area is subject to organizational changes as a function of specific visually guided eye movement tasks; to determine how the area relates to the previously identified two parallel pathways of visually guided eye movement control; and to uncover what deficits arise in the execution of visually guided eye movements as a result of inactivation or damage to this area. Behavioral, physiological, lesion, anatomical, and modeling methods will be used to answer these questions. The work, which will be carried out in rhesus monkeys, whose visual and oculomotor systems are similar to that of man, should provide new understanding of the neural structures and neural circuits involved in the control of visually guided eye movements.