Browsing by Author "Abzug, ZM"

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    Serial Decision-Making in Monkeys During an Oculomotor Task
    (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 2017-10-16) Abzug, ZM; Sommer, MA
    © 2017 APA, all rights reserved). Much of everyday behavior involves serial decision-making, in which the outcome of 1 choice affects another. An example is setting rules for oneself: choosing a behavioral rule guides appropriate choices in the future. How the brain links decisions across time is poorly understood. Neural mechanisms could be studied in monkeys, as it is known that they can select and use behavioral rules, but existing psychophysical paradigms are poorly suited for the constraints of neurophysiology. Therefore, we designed a streamlined task that requires sequential, linked decisions, and trained 2 rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) to perform it. The task features trial-by-trial consistency, visual stimuli, and eye movement responses to optimize it for simultaneous electrophysiological inquiry. In the first stage of each trial, the monkeys selected a rule or a rule was provided to them. In the second stage, they used the rule to discriminate between 2 test stimuli. Our hypotheses were that they could use self-selected rules and could deliberately select rules based on reinforcement history. We found that the monkeys were as proficient at using self-selected rules as instructed rules. Their preferences for selecting rules correlated with their performance in using them, consistent with systematic, rather than random, strategies for accomplishing the task. The results confirm and extend prior findings on rule selection in monkeys and establish a viable, experimentally flexible paradigm for studying the neural basis of serial decision-making. (PsycINFO Database Record
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    Supplementary Eye Fields
    (Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology, 2017) Abzug, ZM; Sommer, MA
    The supplementary eye fields (SEFs) are located in dorsomedial frontal cortex and contribute to high-level control of eye movements. Recordings in the SEF reveal neural activity related to vision, saccades, and fixations, and electrical stimulation in the SEF evokes saccades and fixations. Inactivations and lesions of the SEF, however, cause minimal oculomotor deficits. The SEF thus processes information relevant to eye movements and influences critical oculomotor centers but seems unnecessary for generating action. Instead, the SEF has overarching, subtle functions that include limb-eye coordination, the timing and sequencing of actions, learning, monitoring conflict, prediction, supervising behavior, value-based decision making, and the monitoring of decisions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Supplementary Eye Fields
    (Reference Module on Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology, 2016) Abzug, ZM; Sommer, MA
    The supplementary eye fields (SEFs) are located in dorsomedial frontal cortex and contribute to high-level control of eye movements. Recordings in the SEF reveal neural activity related to vision, saccades, and fixations, and electrical stimulation in the SEF evokes saccades and fixations. Inactivations and lesions of the SEF, however, cause minimal oculomotor deficits. The SEF thus processes information relevant to eye movements and influences critical oculomotor centers but seems unnecessary for generating action. Instead, the SEF has overarching, subtle functions that include limb-eye coordination, the timing and sequencing of actions, learning, monitoring conflict, prediction, supervising behavior, value-based decision making, and the monitoring of decisions.