Frontal Eye Field

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Jeffrey D Schall - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Sequential Operations Revealed by Serendipitous Feature Selectivity in Frontal Eye Field
    2019
    Co-Authors: Kaleb A. Lowe, Jeffrey D Schall
    Abstract:

    ABSTRACT Neurons in macaque Frontal Eye Field contribute to spatial but typically not feature selection during visual search. Using an innovative visual search task, we report a serendipitous discovery that some Frontal Eye Field neurons can develop rapid selectivity for stimulus orientation that is used to guide gaze during a visual search task with pro-saccade and anti-saccade responses. This feature selectivity occurs simultaneously at multiple locations for all objects sharing that feature and coincides with when neurons select the singleton of a search array. This feature selectivity also reveals the distinct, subsequent operation of selecting the endpoint of the saccade in pro-saccade as well as anti-saccade trials. These results demonstrate that target selection preceding saccade preparation is composed of multiple operations. We conjecture that singleton selection indexes the allocation of attention, which can be divided, to conspicuous items. Consequently, endpoint selection indexes the focused allocation of attention to the endpoint of the saccade. These results demonstrate that saccade target selection is not a unitary process. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Frontal Eye Field is well known to contribute to spatial selection for attention and Eye movements. We discovered that some Frontal Eye Field neurons can acquire selectivity for stimulus orientation when it guides visual search. The chronometry of neurons with and without feature selectivity reveal distinct operations accomplishing visual search.

  • functional categories of visuomotor neurons in macaque Frontal Eye Field
    eNeuro, 2018
    Co-Authors: Kaleb A. Lowe, Jeffrey D Schall
    Abstract:

    Frontal Eye Field (FEF) in macaque monkeys contributes to visual attention, visual–motor transformations and production of Eye movements. Traditionally, neurons in FEF have been classified by the magnitude of increased discharge rates following visual stimulus presentation, during a waiting period, and associated with Eye movement production. However, considerable heterogeneity remains within the traditional visual, visuomovement, and movement categories. Cluster analysis is a data-driven method of identifying self-segregating groups within a dataset. Because many cluster analysis techniques exist and outcomes vary with analysis assumptions, consensus clustering aggregates over multiple analyses, identifying robust groups. To describe more comprehensively the neuronal composition of FEF, we applied a consensus clustering technique for unsupervised categorization of patterns of spike rate modulation measured during a memory-guided saccade task. We report 10 functional categories, expanding on the traditional 3 categories. Categories were distinguished by latency, magnitude, and sign of visual response; the presence of sustained activity; and the dynamics, magnitude and sign of saccade-related modulation. Consensus clustering can include other metrics and can be applied to datasets from other brain regions to provide better information guiding microcircuit models of cortical function.

  • functional categories in macaque Frontal Eye Field
    bioRxiv, 2017
    Co-Authors: Kaleb A. Lowe, Jeffrey D Schall
    Abstract:

    Frontal Eye Field (FEF) in macaque monkeys contributes to visual attention, visual-motor transformations and production of Eye movements. Traditionally, neurons in FEF have been classified by the magnitude of increased discharge rates following visual stimulus presentation, during a waiting period, and associated with Eye movement production. However, considerable heterogeneity remains within the traditional visual, visuomovement and movement categories. Cluster analysis is a data-driven method of identifying self-segregating groups within a dataset. Because many cluster analysis techniques exist and cluster outcomes vary with analysis assumptions, consensus clustering aggregates over multiple cluster analyses, identifying robust groups. To describe more comprehensively the neuronal composition of FEF, we applied a consensus clustering technique for unsupervised categorization of patterns of spike rate modulation measured during a memory-guided saccade task. We report ten functional categories, expanding on the traditional three. Categories were distinguished by latency, magnitude, and sign of visual response, presence of sustained activity, and dynamics, magnitude and sign of saccade-related modulation. Consensus clustering can include other metrics and can be applied to datasets from other brain regions to provides better information guiding microcircuit models of cortical function.

  • Cooperation and Competition among Frontal Eye Field Neurons during Visual Target Selection
    The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2010
    Co-Authors: Jeremiah Y. Cohen, Kirk G Thompson, Erin A. Crowder, Richard P. Heitz, Chenchal R. Subraveti, Geoffrey F. Woodman, Jeffrey D Schall
    Abstract:

    The role of spike rate versus timing codes in visual target selection is unclear. We simultaneously recorded activity from multiple Frontal Eye Field neurons and asked whether they interacted to select targets from distractors during visual search. When both neurons in a pair selected the target and had overlapping receptive Fields (RFs), they cooperated more than when one or neither neuron in the pair selected the target, measured by positive spike timing correlations using joint peristimulus time histogram analysis. The amount of cooperation depended on the location of the search target: it was higher when the target was inside both neurons' RFs than when it was inside one RF but not the other, or outside both RFs. Elevated spike timing coincidences occurred at the time of attentional selection of the target as measured by average modulation of discharge rates. We observed competition among neurons with spatially non-overlapping RFs, measured by negative spike timing correlations. Thus, we provide evidence for dynamic and task-dependent cooperation and competition among Frontal Eye Field neurons during visual target selection.

  • neural control of visual search by Frontal Eye Field effects of unexpected target displacement on visual selection and saccade preparation
    Journal of Neurophysiology, 2009
    Co-Authors: Aditya Murthy, Jeffrey D Schall, Stephanie M Shorter, Kirk G Thompson
    Abstract:

    The dynamics of visual selection and saccade preparation by the Frontal Eye Field was investigated in macaque monkeys performing a search-step task combining the classic double-step saccade task with visual search. Reward was earned for producing a saccade to a color singleton. On random trials the target and one distractor swapped locations before the saccade and monkeys were rewarded for shifting gaze to the new singleton location. A race model accounts for the probabilities and latencies of saccades to the initial and final singleton locations and provides a measure of the duration of a covert compensation process—target-step reaction time. When the target stepped out of a movement Field, noncompensated saccades to the original location were produced when movement-related activity grew rapidly to a threshold. Compensated saccades to the final location were produced when the growth of the original movement-related activity was interrupted within target-step reaction time and was replaced by activation of other neurons producing the compensated saccade. When the target stepped into a receptive Field, visual neurons selected the new target location regardless of the monkeys’ response. When the target stepped out of a receptive Field most visual neurons maintained the representation of the original target location, but a minority of visual neurons showed reduced activity. Chronometric analyses of the neural responses to the target step revealed that the modulation of visually responsive neurons and movement-related neurons occurred early enough to shift attention and saccade preparation from the old to the new target location. These findings indicate that visual activity in the Frontal Eye Field signals the location of targets for orienting, whereas movement-related activity instantiates saccade preparation.

Kirk G Thompson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Cooperation and Competition among Frontal Eye Field Neurons during Visual Target Selection
    The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2010
    Co-Authors: Jeremiah Y. Cohen, Kirk G Thompson, Erin A. Crowder, Richard P. Heitz, Chenchal R. Subraveti, Geoffrey F. Woodman, Jeffrey D Schall
    Abstract:

    The role of spike rate versus timing codes in visual target selection is unclear. We simultaneously recorded activity from multiple Frontal Eye Field neurons and asked whether they interacted to select targets from distractors during visual search. When both neurons in a pair selected the target and had overlapping receptive Fields (RFs), they cooperated more than when one or neither neuron in the pair selected the target, measured by positive spike timing correlations using joint peristimulus time histogram analysis. The amount of cooperation depended on the location of the search target: it was higher when the target was inside both neurons' RFs than when it was inside one RF but not the other, or outside both RFs. Elevated spike timing coincidences occurred at the time of attentional selection of the target as measured by average modulation of discharge rates. We observed competition among neurons with spatially non-overlapping RFs, measured by negative spike timing correlations. Thus, we provide evidence for dynamic and task-dependent cooperation and competition among Frontal Eye Field neurons during visual target selection.

  • Frontal Eye Field activity enhances object identification during covert visual search
    Journal of Neurophysiology, 2009
    Co-Authors: Ilya E Monosov, Kirk G Thompson
    Abstract:

    We investigated the link between neuronal activity in the Frontal Eye Field (FEF) and the enhancement of visual processing associated with covert spatial attention in the absence of Eye movements. We correlated activity recorded in the FEF of monkeys manually reporting the identity of a visual search target to performance accuracy and reaction time. Monkeys were cued to the most probable target location with a cue array containing a popout color singleton. Neurons exhibited spatially selective responses for the popout cue stimulus and for the target of the search array. The magnitude of activity related to the location of the cue prior to the presentation of the search array was correlated with trends in behavioral performance across valid, invalid, and neutral cue trial conditions. However, the speed and accuracy of the behavioral report on individual trials were predicted by the magnitude of spatial selectivity related to the target to be identified, not for the spatial cue. A minimum level of selectivity was necessary for target detection and a higher level for target identification. Muscimol inactivation of FEF produced spatially selective perceptual deficits in the covert search task that were correlated with the effectiveness of the inactivation and were strongest on invalid cue trials that require an endogenous attention shift. These results demonstrate a strong functional link between FEF activity and covert spatial attention and suggest that spatial signals from FEF directly influence visual processing during the time that a stimulus to be identified is being processed by the visual system.

  • neural control of visual search by Frontal Eye Field effects of unexpected target displacement on visual selection and saccade preparation
    Journal of Neurophysiology, 2009
    Co-Authors: Aditya Murthy, Jeffrey D Schall, Stephanie M Shorter, Kirk G Thompson
    Abstract:

    The dynamics of visual selection and saccade preparation by the Frontal Eye Field was investigated in macaque monkeys performing a search-step task combining the classic double-step saccade task with visual search. Reward was earned for producing a saccade to a color singleton. On random trials the target and one distractor swapped locations before the saccade and monkeys were rewarded for shifting gaze to the new singleton location. A race model accounts for the probabilities and latencies of saccades to the initial and final singleton locations and provides a measure of the duration of a covert compensation process—target-step reaction time. When the target stepped out of a movement Field, noncompensated saccades to the original location were produced when movement-related activity grew rapidly to a threshold. Compensated saccades to the final location were produced when the growth of the original movement-related activity was interrupted within target-step reaction time and was replaced by activation of other neurons producing the compensated saccade. When the target stepped into a receptive Field, visual neurons selected the new target location regardless of the monkeys’ response. When the target stepped out of a receptive Field most visual neurons maintained the representation of the original target location, but a minority of visual neurons showed reduced activity. Chronometric analyses of the neural responses to the target step revealed that the modulation of visually responsive neurons and movement-related neurons occurred early enough to shift attention and saccade preparation from the old to the new target location. These findings indicate that visual activity in the Frontal Eye Field signals the location of targets for orienting, whereas movement-related activity instantiates saccade preparation.

  • Frontal Eye Field contributions to rapid corrective saccades
    Journal of Neurophysiology, 2007
    Co-Authors: Aditya Murthy, Stephanie M Shorter, Jeffrey D Schall, Supriya Ray, Elizabeth G Priddy, Kirk G Thompson
    Abstract:

    Visually guided movements can be inaccurate, especially if unexpected events occur while the movement is programmed. Often errors of gaze are corrected before external feedback can be processed. Evidence is presented from macaque monkey Frontal Eye Field (FEF), a cortical area that selects visual targets, allocates attention, and programs saccadic Eye movements, for a neural mechanism that can correct saccade errors before visual afferent or performance monitoring signals can register the error. Macaques performed visual search for a color singleton that unpredictably changed position in a circular array as in classic double-step experiments. Consequently, some saccades were directed in error to the original target location. These were followed frequently by unrewarded, corrective saccades to the final target location. We previously showed that visually responsive neurons represent the new target location even if gaze shifted errantly to the original target location. Now we show that the latency of corrective saccades is predicted by the timing of movement-related activity in the FEF. Preceding rapid corrective saccades, the movement-related activity of all neurons began before explicit error signals arise in the medial Frontal cortex. The movement-related activity of many neurons began before visual feedback of the error was registered and that of a few neurons began before the error saccade was completed. Thus movement-related activity leading to rapid corrective saccades can be guided by an internal representation of the environment updated with a forward model of the error.

  • neuronal basis of covert spatial attention in the Frontal Eye Field
    The Journal of Neuroscience, 2005
    Co-Authors: Kirk G Thompson, Keri L Biscoe, Takashi R. Sato
    Abstract:

    The influential "premotor theory of attention" proposes that developing oculomotor commands mediate covert visual spatial attention. A likely source of this attentional bias is the Frontal Eye Field (FEF), an area of the Frontal cortex involved in converting visual information into saccade commands. We investigated the link between FEF activity and covert spatial attention by recording from FEF visual and saccade-related neurons in monkeys performing covert visual search tasks without Eye movements. Here we show that the source of attention signals in the FEF is enhanced activity of visually responsive neurons. At the time attention is allocated to the visual search target, nonvisually responsive saccade-related movement neurons are inhibited. Therefore, in the FEF, spatial attention signals are independent of explicit saccade command signals. We propose that spatially selective activity in FEF visually responsive neurons corresponds to the mental spotlight of attention via modulation of ongoing visual processing.

Mark A. Segraves - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • from preliminary to definitive plans two classes of neurons in Frontal Eye Field
    bioRxiv, 2018
    Co-Authors: Joshua I Glaser, Mark A. Segraves, Daniel K Wood, Patrick N Lawlor, Konrad P Kording
    Abstract:

    Prior to selecting an action, we often consider other possibilities. How does the brain represent these preliminary plans prior to action selection? Here, we investigated this question in the oculomotor system during self-guided search of natural scenes. We found two classes of neurons in the Frontal Eye Field (FEF): 1) "late selection neurons" that represented the selected action plan not long before the upcoming saccade, and 2) "early selection neurons" that became predictive of the upcoming saccade much earlier, often before the previous saccade had even ended. Crucially, these early selection neurons did not only predict the upcoming saccade direction; they also reflected the probabilities of possible upcoming saccades, even when they did not end up being selected. Our results demonstrate that during naturalistic Eye movements, separate populations of neurons code for preliminary and definitive plans.

  • role of expected reward in Frontal Eye Field during natural scene search
    Journal of Neurophysiology, 2016
    Co-Authors: Joshua I Glaser, Daniel K Wood, Patrick N Lawlor, Konrad P Kording, Pavan Ramkumar, Mark A. Segraves
    Abstract:

    When a saccade is expected to result in a reward, both neural activity in oculomotor areas and the saccade itself (e.g., its vigor and latency) are altered (compared with when no reward is expected). As such, it is unclear whether the correlations of neural activity with reward indicate a representation of reward beyond a movement representation; the modulated neural activity may simply represent the differences in motor output due to expected reward. Here, to distinguish between these possibilities, we trained monkeys to perform a natural scene search task while we recorded from the Frontal Eye Field (FEF). Indeed, when reward was expected (i.e., saccades to the target), FEF neurons showed enhanced responses. Moreover, when monkeys accidentally made Eye movements to the target, firing rates were lower than when they purposively moved to the target. Thus, neurons were modulated by expected reward rather than simply the presence of the target. We then fit a model that simultaneously included components related to expected reward and saccade parameters. While expected reward led to shorter latency and higher velocity saccades, these behavioral changes could not fully explain the increased FEF firing rates. Thus, FEF neurons appear to encode motivational factors such as reward expectation, above and beyond the kinematic and behavioral consequences of imminent reward.

  • saliency and saccade encoding in the Frontal Eye Field during natural scene search
    Cerebral Cortex, 2014
    Co-Authors: Mark A. Segraves, Konrad P Kording, Hugo L Fernandes, Ian H Stevenson, Adam N Phillips
    Abstract:

    The Frontal Eye Field (FEF) plays a central role in saccade selection and execution. Using artificial stimuli, many studies have shown that the activity of neurons in the FEF is affected by both visually salient stimuli in a neuron's receptive Field and upcoming saccades in a certain direction. However, the extent to which visual and motor information is represented in the FEF in the context of the cluttered natural scenes we encounter during everyday life has not been explored. Here, we model the activities of neurons in the FEF, recorded while monkeys were searching natural scenes, using both visual and saccade information. We compare the contribution of bottom-up visual saliency (based on low-level features such as brightness, orientation, and color) and saccade direction. We find that, while saliency is correlated with the activities of some neurons, this relationship is ultimately driven by activities related to movement. Although bottom-up visual saliency contributes to the choice of saccade targets, it does not appear that FEF neurons actively encode the kind of saliency posited by popular saliency map theories. Instead, our results emphasize the FEF's role in the stages of saccade planning directly related to movement generation.

  • Macaque Frontal Eye Field Input to Saccade-Related Neurons in the Superior Colliculus
    Journal of neurophysiology, 2003
    Co-Authors: Janet Odry Helminski, Mark A. Segraves
    Abstract:

    Extracellular recordings were made simultaneously in the Frontal Eye Field and superior colliculus in awake, behaving rhesus monkeys. Frontal Eye Field microstimulation was used to orthodromically ...

  • Muscimol-Induced Inactivation of Monkey Frontal Eye Field: Effects on Visually and Memory-Guided Saccades
    Journal of neurophysiology, 1999
    Co-Authors: Elisa C. Dias, Mark A. Segraves
    Abstract:

    Muscimol-induced inactivation of the monkey Frontal Eye Field: effects on visually and memory-guided saccades. Although neurophysiological, anatomic, and imaging evidence suggest that the Frontal e...

C. J. Bruce - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

Hisao Suzuki - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

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