Dynamics of visual receptive fields in the macaque frontal eye field.
Abstract
Neuronal receptive fields (RFs) provide the foundation for understanding systems-level
sensory processing. In early visual areas, investigators have mapped RFs in detail
using stochastic stimuli and sophisticated analytical approaches. Much less is known
about RFs in prefrontal cortex. Visual stimuli used for mapping RFs in prefrontal
cortex tend to cover a small range of spatial and temporal parameters, making it difficult
to understand their role in visual processing. To address these shortcomings, we implemented
a generalized linear model to measure the RFs of neurons in the macaque frontal eye
field (FEF) in response to sparse, full-field stimuli. Our high-resolution, probabilistic
approach tracked the evolution of RFs during passive fixation, and we validated our
results against conventional measures. We found that FEF neurons exhibited a surprising
level of sensitivity to stimuli presented as briefly as 10 ms or to multiple dots
presented simultaneously, suggesting that FEF visual responses are more precise than
previously appreciated. FEF RF spatial structures were largely maintained over time
and between stimulus conditions. Our results demonstrate that the application of probabilistic
RF mapping to FEF and similar association areas is an important tool for clarifying
the neuronal mechanisms of cognition.
Type
Journal articleSubject
frontal eye fieldmacaque
receptive field
saccades
vision
Animals
Evoked Potentials, Visual
Female
Macaca mulatta
Male
Models, Neurological
Prefrontal Cortex
Visual Fields
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10632Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1152/jn.00746.2015Publication Info
Mayo, J Patrick; DiTomasso, Amie R; Sommer, Marc A; & Smith, Matthew A (2015). Dynamics of visual receptive fields in the macaque frontal eye field. J Neurophysiol, 114(6). pp. 3201-3210. 10.1152/jn.00746.2015. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10632.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
J. Patrick Mayo
Affiliate
Marc A. Sommer
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
We study circuits for cognition. Using a combination of neurophysiology and biomedical
engineering, we focus on the interaction between brain areas during visual perception,
decision-making, and motor planning. Specific projects include the role of frontal
cortex in metacognition, the role of cerebellar-frontal circuits in action timing,
the neural basis of "good enough" decision-making (satisficing), and the neural mechanisms
of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
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