Distribution of eye position information in the monkey inferior colliculus.
Abstract
The inferior colliculus (IC) is thought to have two main subdivisions, a central region
that forms an important stop on the ascending auditory pathway and a surrounding shell
region that may play a more modulatory role. In this study, we investigated whether
eye position affects activity in both the central and shell regions. Accordingly,
we mapped the location of eye position-sensitive neurons in six monkeys making spontaneous
eye movements by sampling multiunit activity at regularly spaced intervals throughout
the IC. We used a functional map based on auditory response patterns to estimate the
anatomical location of recordings, in conjunction with structural MRI and histology.
We found eye position-sensitive sites throughout the IC, including at 27% of sites
in tonotopically organized recording penetrations (putatively the central nucleus).
Recordings from surrounding tissue showed a larger proportion of sites indicating
an influence of eye position (33-43%). When present, the magnitude of the change in
activity due to eye position was often comparable to that seen for sound frequency.
Our results indicate that the primary ascending auditory pathway is influenced by
the position of the eyes. Because eye position is essential for visual-auditory integration,
our findings suggest that computations underlying visual-auditory integration begin
early in the ascending auditory pathway.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Auditory PathwaysAnimals
Haplorhini
Eye Movements
Brain Mapping
Sound Localization
Female
Male
Inferior Colliculi
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17894Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1152/jn.00662.2011Publication Info
Bulkin, David A; & Groh, Jennifer M (2012). Distribution of eye position information in the monkey inferior colliculus. Journal of neurophysiology, 107(3). pp. 785-795. 10.1152/jn.00662.2011. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17894.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
Jennifer M. Groh
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Research in my laboratory concerns how sensory and motor systems work together, and
how neural representations play a combined role in sensorimotor and cognitive processing
(embodied cognition).
Most of our work concerns the interactions between vision and hearing. We frequently
perceive visual and auditory stimuli as being bound together if they seem likely to
have arisen from a common source. That's why we tend not to notice that the speakers
on TV sets or in movie theatres are located bes

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