NEURAL CONTROL OF VISUALLY GUIDED EYE MOVEMENTS

描述：(改编自申请人的摘要。)在灵长类动物中有两大 平行路径，一条涉及额部眼场，另一条 后皮层和上丘，已被证明是 参与产生视觉引导的眼球跳动。 最近，另一个领域与视觉引导的眼球运动有关 控制力。这一区域位于背内侧额叶皮质(DMFC)，是 与额叶眼场和上丘不同的是， 似乎利用空间坐标对眼跳动作进行编码 系统，一个能够经历组织变化的代码 对各种眼动任务进行长期训练的结果。 拟议工作的目的是表征功能 DMFC的组织；确定这一领域的方式和程度 受制于组织变更作为特定视觉指导的功能 眼动任务；以确定该区域如何与之前的 确定了两条平行的视觉引导眼动控制路径； 并发现在执行视觉引导的眼睛时会出现什么缺陷 由于这一区域的失活或损坏而导致的运动。行为上的， 将使用生理、损伤、解剖学和建模方法来 回答这些问题。 这项工作将在恒河猴身上进行，它的视觉和 眼球运动系统与人类相似，应提供新的 对神经结构和神经回路的理解 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.