JN Watch the video to learn how APS reaches out to developing nations.
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
 QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     


J Neurophysiol 97: 761-771, 2007. First published October 25, 2006; doi:10.1152/jn.00278.2006
0022-3077/07 $8.00
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
97/1/761    most recent
00278.2006v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (10)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ilg, U. J.
Right arrow Articles by Schumann, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ilg, U. J.
Right arrow Articles by Schumann, S.

Primate Area MST-l Is Involved in the Generation of Goal-Directed Eye and Hand Movements

Uwe J. Ilg1 and Stefan Schumann2

1Cognitive Neurology, Hertie-Institute of Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen; and 2Section for Experimental Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

Submitted 15 March 2006; accepted in final form 19 October 2006


 ABSTRACT
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
The contributions of the middle superior temporal area (MST) in the posterior parietal cortex of rhesus monkeys to the generation of smooth-pursuit eye movements as well as the contributions to motion perception are well established. Here, we present the first experimental evidence that this area also contributes to the generation of goal-directed hand movements toward a moving target. This evidence is based on the outcome of intracortical microstimulation experiments and transient lesions by small injections of muscimol at identified sites within the lateral part of area MST (MST-l). When microstimulation was applied during the execution of smooth-pursuit eye movements, postsaccadic eye velocity in the direction of the preferred direction of the stimulated site increased significantly (in 93 of 136 sites tested). When microstimulation was applied during a hand movement trial, the hand movement was displaced significantly in the same direction (in 28 of 39 sites tested). When we lesioned area MST-l transiently by injections of muscimol, steady-state eye velocity was exclusively reduced for ipsiversive smooth-pursuit eye movements. In contrast, hand movements were displaced toward the contralateral side, irrespective of the direction of the moving target. Our results provide evidence that area MST-l is involved in the processing of moving targets and plays a role in the execution of smooth-pursuit eye movements as well as visually guided hand movements.


 INTRODUCTION
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
The correct processing of visual motion is an essential cognitive function. It enables us to identify moving objects, to estimate three-dimensional (3D) object configurations, to move our eyes appropriately, and to recover ego-motion in space (for review see Nakayama 1985). In primates, the important role played by middle superior temporal area (MST) in the execution of smooth-pursuit eye movements (Ilg and Thier 2003Go; Ilg et al. 2004Go; Kawano et al. 1994Go; Newsome et al. 1988Go; Thier and Erickson 1992Go) and in motion perception (Britten and van Wezel 1998Go, 2002Go; Celebrini and Newsome 1994Go, 1995Go; Heuer and Britten 2004Go; Ilg and Churan 2004Go) are well documented.

Area MST receives input from the middle temporal area (MT) (Maunsell and van Essen 1983Go; Ungerleider and Desimone 1986Go), which is believed to carry retinal image motion signals (Lisberger and Movshon 1999Go). Area MST consists of two subareas: a dorsal subarea and a lateral subarea (Komatsu and Wurtz 1988Go). The dorsal part (MST-d) is essential for decoding optic flow (Duffy and Wurtz 1991Go). The decoding of optic flow is of special relevance for differentiating self-induced and external induced retinal image motion (Zemel and Sejnowski 1998Go) as well as for estimating heading direction (Hamed et al. 2003Go; Page and Duffy 2003Go). On the other hand, the lateral part (MST-l) is important for decoding object motion in space. To recover object motion in space, extraretinal information related to ongoing eye and head movements is added to retinal image motion signals of the tracked target (Ilg and Thier 2003Go; Ilg et al. 2004Go; Kawano et al. 1994Go; Newsome et al. 1988Go; Thier and Erickson 1992Go). As a result, the neuronal activity of a group of neurons in area MST-l represents target movement within an external frame of reference (Ilg et al. 2004Go).

Based on the results of oculomotor and manual tracking of human subjects in two dimensions, it was earlier hypothesized that manual tracking and smooth-pursuit eye movements use similar control signals and depend on a common neural resource (Engel and Soechting 2000Go; Engel et al. 1999Go). In addition, the control strategies for directing the hand and the eyes toward moving targets shared similar dependencies on target predictability (von Donkelaar et al. 1992Go). The common neural resource might include area MST because it was previously shown that the population vector recorded from area MST represents the target trajectory during a manual-tracking task (Kruse et al. 2002Go). Taken together, an obvious question is whether area MST is a specific preprocessor for visual motion used exclusively for the execution of smooth-pursuit eye movements or, alternatively, whether MST processes visual motion guiding eye and hand movements.

The approach taken here is to initially replicate earlier findings on the role of MST-l for smooth-pursuit eye movements. Based on these results, we then investigate whether MST-l is also important for generating goal-directed hand movements.


 METHODS
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
Two adult male rhesus monkeys (BH and GH) were used in the present study. Using surgical procedures described in detail earlier (Ilg and Thier 1996Go), they were implanted with a head post, recording chambers, and a search coil beneath the conjunctiva. All animal procedures were carried out in accordance with the guidelines established by the National Institutes of Health and German law and were approved by the local ethics committee. The center of each recording chamber was aimed at the lateral parts of area MST (stereotactic coordinates: lateral 19, posterior 3.5, and dorsal 16 mm). The axis of the chamber was tilted 30° upward with respect to the horizontal in a parasagittal plane. The first penetrations in each hemisphere were performed in the center of the chamber. Well-established single-unit response properties were used to further refine the location of area MST and its two major subdivisions, the dorsal one (= MST-d) and the lateral one (= MST-l) in the individual hemisphere as well as the boundary with neighboring area MT (Komatsu and Wurtz 1988Go). Details of the single-unit responses recorded from MST of these monkeys were published in an earlier work (Ilg et al. 2004Go).

Experimental setup

VISUAL STIMULATION.  The visual stimulation was generated by a PC (1,280 x 1,024 pixels, 60-Hz refresh rate) and back-projected (NEC XG-1101G) onto the touch screen (width 49°, height 30°) that was mounted at a reachable distance (0.33 m) for the monkeys. Targets for eye movements were red dots (luminance 0.5 cd/m2, diameter 0.5°) and targets for hand movements were white dots (same luminance and diameter). The stimulation computer was synchronized with a second personal computer for data acquisition. All experiments were performed in a completely dark chamber. The monkeys could see neither the borders of the screen nor the screen itself. To prevent dark adaptation of the monkeys, bright light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were switched on when the liquid reward was provided at the end of each correct trial.

EYE MOVEMENT RECORDINGS.  Horizontal and vertical eye positions were measured using implanted search coils (Judge et al. 1980Go; Robinson 1963Go). These analogue signals were low-pass filtered at 500 Hz and sampled at a rate of 1 kHz.

HAND MOVEMENT RECORDINGS.  Accuracy of the goal-directed hand movements was determined by means of a touch screen (AccuTouch, Elo Touch Systems) connected to the serial port of a PC. The temporal resolution of the touch screen was 60 Hz, identical to the refresh rate of the visual stimulation. We determined the horizontal and vertical finger positions on the touch screen in addition to the onset time and offset time of the reaching movement. Because the experiments were performed in total darkness, the monkeys could not see their hands during the pointing movement.

To monitor the monkeys, their actions, and some possible consequences of the mircrostimulation, we used infrared (IR) illumination to enable video control of our monkeys in total darkness.

Experimental paradigms

EYE MOVEMENT STUDY.  Various saccade and pursuit paradigms were used in this study. All eye movement paradigms began with a fixation period of 1 s (see Fig. 1 A). To minimize the effect of anticipation (despite this fixed period), we randomized either target position or direction of target movement from trial to trial.


Figure 1
View larger version (27K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 1. Experimental paradigms used in this study. Event sequences during the microstimulation paradigm are shown. To examine the effects of transient inactivation of the lateral part of the middle superior temporal area (MST-l), identical paradigms were applied without microstimulation. A: eye movement task. B: hand movement task.

 
In the pursuit paradigm, the moving target was displayed for 2 s. In the microstimulation experiments, target velocity was fixed to 10°/s and the target moved in one of four possible directions (i.e., 90° circular distance) aligned to the preferred direction of the stimulation site. In the lesion study, we used four different velocities (5, 10, 20, and 30°/s, respectively) to the left or right, respectively. The target always started to move from the position of the stationary fixation target.

In the saccade paradigm, a stationary target was displayed at one of eight possible locations (eccentricity 10°) after the fixation target disappeared. The size of the gaze control window was adjusted to the difficulty of the actual task (4–8°). If the monkey's gaze remained within the control window, the animal received a liquid reward (about 0.1 ml/trial) at the offset of each correct trial. If the gaze left the control window, the actual trial was instantly aborted and the data were discarded.

HAND MOVEMENT STUDY.  In the hand movement task, the monkey had to touch a sensor in its chair to start the next trial. In other words, each hand movement trial started with the monkey's hand located in a constant, predefined position in space. After a random fixation period of 500 to 1,000 ms, the moving target appeared on the screen (see Fig. 1B). The target appeared at a random position (between center of screen and its border opposite to its direction of movement) and moved at 10°/s along one of the cardinal axes. When the fixation target's color changed from red to blue (randomized 200 to 500 ms after the onset of the moving target), the monkey had to perform a reaching hand movement toward the moving target. Once the monkey's hand left the sensor in its chair, the moving target was switched off. The analysis of our video material revealed that the monkeys usually touched the surface of the screen with the knuckle of their right index finger. The monkey had to maintain fixation throughout the entire trial; violation of fixation yielded instantaneous trial abortion. To instruct the monkeys to perform hand movements as precisely as possible, the amount of reward depended on the size of the pointing error (approximately between 0.1 and 0.6 ml/trial), which was computed as the difference between current target and finger position. The monkeys never received feedback information related to target and finger position.

Microstimulation protocol

Microstimulation was applied with the same electrode used for the single-unit recordings. We never observed a change of the electrode impedance as a consequence of the stimulation. In the eye movement study, we applied microstimulation (WPI Stimulus Isolator A365) for 200 ms (200-Hz, bipolar pulse length 200 µs, strength from 50 to ≤80 µA), 200 ms after target movement onset. During microstimulation, the target for eye movements was either switched off or remained visible. For the hand movement study, microstimulation (with the same parameters as in the eye movement study) began in synchrony with the GO signal and ended when the monkey touched the screen (or after a maximum period of 500 ms). Note that there was a temporal overlap between microstimulation and target presentation during the manual reaction time of every individual trial.

In pilot hand movement experiments (see Fig. 2), we observed no effects of microstimulation on the hand movements if the target was visible during the reaching period. Therefore we switched off the target as soon as the hand left its initial predefined position. As Fig. 2 shows, the mean of the two-dimensional (2D) Gaussian function was not affected by this manipulation. Only the width of this function increased during open-loop pointing.


Figure 2
View larger version (21K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 2. Precision of pointing. Errors of hand movements of individual trials (1,280 in each condition) are shown in the presence of the target (A) and in the absence of the target (B). Horizontal error (i.e., difference between target and finger position) is shown on the x-axis; the vertical error is shown on the y-axis. C and D: resulting 2D Gaussian functions. Function shown in C had x0 = 0.3°, y0 = 0°, and SD = 2°. Function shown in D had x0 = –0.8°, y0 = –0.7°, SD = 2.7°. Note that the pointing was more precise if the target was present.

 
Muscimol injection protocol

To inject small amounts of muscimol into area MST, we replaced the electrode by a stainless steel canula through which a glass pipette (tip diameter of about 50 µm) approached area MST exactly at sites previously explored by single-unit recordings. The pipette was glued onto a Hamilton syringe and was filled with muscimol solution (5 mg/ml in H2O). The Hamilton syringe itself was filled with paraffin. In one experiment per hemisphere, fluorescent latex microspheres (Lumafluor) were added at the tip of the pipette to reconstruct the center of the injection, in which ≤4 µl was slowly injected over about 30 min. After a delay of 30 min, the pipette was removed. The behavioral testing was performed only after the micropipette had been removed and the chamber had been closed again. To ensure that we did not measure long-lasting effects of the muscimol, we performed these injections only every other day.

Data processing

All data processing was performed using self-written scripts together with the available toolboxes in Matlab.

EYE MOVEMENTS.  We obtained single trial eye velocity by differentiating and low-pass filtering the eye position profiles. Saccades were automatically detected according to an acceleration threshold algorithm. Saccade parameters such as latency, duration, amplitude, and peak velocity were determined. Eye velocity profiles of single trials were kept empty over the duration of the saccade (i.e., the eye velocity values were replaced by the arithmetic representation of not-a-number) to guarantee that saccades did not influence any other parameter.

In addition to saccade detection, presaccadic pursuit initiation was determined based on the eye velocity profiles of single trials. At the time of the initial saccade, the initiation of pursuit is complete and eye velocity is very precisely matched to target velocity (Carl and Gellman 1987Go; Lisberger 1998Go). Therefore we decided to use postsaccadic eye velocity to quantify the effect of microstimulation.

We aligned single trials (10 per condition) to the offset of the initial saccade. Subsequently, we averaged eye velocity over a period of 50 ms immediately after the offset of the initial saccade. The vector difference between postsaccadic eye velocity in stimulated and control trials was used to determine the stimulation effect for a given pursuit direction. The stimulation vector was computed by adding the vectors obtained from pursuit along cardinal axes.

Steady-state pursuit velocity was computed by averaging desaccaded eye velocity from the onset of pursuit until the end of trial. Subsequently, averages were computed for all trials with a given target velocity (from 5 to 30°/s).

Single-trial pursuit onset latencies were determined by a threshold algorithm applied to the eye acceleration profiles.

HAND MOVEMENTS.  Hand movements were quantified by the following parameters: the time the monkey's hand left the initial sensor (hand movement latency), the time the finger hit the touch screen (movement duration, taken as the difference between hit and latency), and the position of the finger on the touch screen. From this position, we calculated the pointing error as the difference between the actual target position and the landing position. The histogram of this pointing error, based on 160 single trials in which the target moved in one of the four cardinal directions, was fitted using the Matlab function lsqnonlin to a 2D Gaussian function

Formula
where x0 and y0 represent the mean horizontal and vertical errors, respectively. The SD gives the radius of the circle at which the function has fallen to 68.3% of its maximum. The stimulation vector for hand movements was determined by the difference in mean reaching error during stimulated and control trials.

COMPARISON OF DIRECTIONS.  To compare the preferred direction of the pursuit-related activity at a given stimulation site and the direction of the stimulation vector on eye and hand movements, we performed two analyses. First, we computed the angle between the preferred direction and the stimulation vector and built a histogram of the angles. Second, we calculated the circular correlation (Fisher 1995Go) between preferred direction and stimulation vector using the Oriana2 software package (Kovach Computing Services, Anglesey, Wales) and determined whether this correlation was significant.

Anatomy

After execution of these experiments, the monkeys were killed and their brains were cut frontally into 50-µm sections. Among others (in total eight series), the sections were stained for cell bodies (cresyl violet) or myelin (Gallyas), the latter to delineate the borders of area MT in the posterior wall of the superior temporal sulcus (STS), resulting in a spacing between two adjacent stained sections of 400 µm. The reconstruction of both stimulation and muscimol injection sites was based on relating microdrive readings to the locations of fluorescent beads and visible traces of the electrode tracks. This confirmed that the manipulations in all three hemispheres were directed toward the lateral part of area MST, located in the fundus of the STS anterior to area MT.


 RESULTS
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
We started our microstimulation experiments or injected muscimol, respectively, only if the electrode picked up pursuit-related activity as shown in Fig. 3. This typical single-unit recorded from the lateral part of MST (MST-l) preferred pursuit to the right and down. The neuronal activity during pursuit in this direction was clearly greater compared with spontaneous activity during stationary fixation. In contrast, during pursuit in the opposite direction, the activity of this neuron fell below the spontaneous rate. In every case, the neuronal activity during pursuit in the preferred direction was significant larger (P < 0.05, t-test) than the activity during pursuit in the opposite direction.


Figure 3
View larger version (33K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 3. Pursuit-related single-unit activity recorded from MST-l. Target and eye movement (green indicates horizontal target position; red indicates vertical target position) are shown for 8 different pursuit directions (velocity 10°/s). Neuronal activity is shown as a raster display and as spike density functions (SD 40 ms) for each direction. In the central polar diagram, the steady-state activities are plotted together with the resulting von Mise distribution (Eq. 2): f(x) = a/[2{pi}I(0,k)] exp{k[cos (x – T)]}. Arrow gives the preferred direction. Gray circle shows spontaneous activity measured during initial fixation of the stationary target.

 
Specific effects of MST microstimulation

A typical effect of microstimulation in MST-l on pursuit eye movements is shown in Fig. 4 at the site where the pursuit response presented in Fig. 3 was recorded. If we stimulated during the execution of smooth-pursuit eye movements, we observed an increase of eye speed whenever the monkey performed pursuit in the preferred direction (rightward and downward, –25°) of the stimulated site (see red arrow in Fig. 4B). Latencies of the eye movement were not affected by the microstimulation. In the example shown, the pursuit onset latencies without stimulation were 145 and 153 ms (SD 11 and 19 ms, respectively) in stimulated trials (n.s., t-test, P = 0.2967). The latency of the initial saccades was 372 ms (SD 36 ms) without stimulation and 377 ms (SD 25 ms) in stimulated trials (n.s., t-test, P = 0.77). After the cessation of stimulation, the monkey corrected for the stimulation-induced offset in eye position by backward-directed saccades (see black arrow in Fig. 4B).


Figure 4
View larger version (27K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 4. Effect of microstimulation on smooth-pursuit eye movements. A: target and eye position in the control condition directed in the preferred direction of this site (rightward and downward, –25°). B: superimposed eye position during stimulation (in red) and control trials (in black). Red horizontal bar shows the stimulation period. Note that microstimulation did not produce a change in the latency of the eye movement. Red arrow marks the stimulation-induced overshoot in eye position; black arrow marks the backward compensation. C: eye velocity of control and stimulated trials. Red horizontal bar gives the stimulation period. D: mean eye velocity. Trials are aligned on the offset of initial saccade. Black lines indicate the 200-ms stimulation interval of every individual stimulation trial. Two gray rectangles mark the time (50 ms) and mean values of the postsaccadic eye velocity in stimulated and control trials, respectively. These values are used to determine the stimulation vector.

 
To quantify this effect of microstimulation, we determined the postsaccadic eye velocity (see Fig. 4D) and calculated the stimulation vector as the vector difference in postsaccadic velocity between stimulated and control trials. When pursuit was in the nonpreferred direction, there was no significant change in eye speed (see left box in Fig. 5). During pursuit in the direction orthogonal to the preferred direction, the stimulation vector was still directed toward the preferred direction of the stimulation site.


Figure 5
View larger version (14K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 5. Postsaccadic velocities. Effect of stimulation on horizontal and vertical postsaccadic eye velocity (mean and SD based on 10 trials in each condition) during pursuit in 4 different directions (approximately as arranged in the figure) is shown. Preferred direction of the stimulation site was to the right and down (–25°). Significant differences between stimulation (black bars) and control trials (gray bars) are marked (*P < 0.05, t-test). Target velocity was 10°/s. Resulting stimulation vector on postsaccadic eye velocity is shown in the central polar plot as a black arrow. In addition, the preferred direction of the pursuit-related activity at this stimulation site is shown as a gray arrow.

 
We observed an effect of microstimulation on eye velocity only if the monkeys performed smooth pursuit. If we stimulated during fixation of a stationary target, no effects on eye velocity were observed (see Fig. 6, same stimulation site). Statistical testing of eye velocity with and without stimulation did not result in any significant differences (P > 0.05, t-test).


Figure 6
View larger version (9K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 6. Effects of stimulation during fixation. Mean horizontal eye velocity during microstimulation is shown by the gray trace. Stimulation interval is marked by the gray horizontal bar. Black trace: control condition without stimulation. Mean profiles were computed on 10 single trials each. Target was switched off during microstimulation. If the monkey was not engaged in pursuit, no effect of microstimulation on eye velocity was observed.

 
Overall, we performed microstimulation at 136 sites in area MST-l of our two monkeys and found significant effects on postsaccadic eye velocity at 93 sites (t-test, P < 0.05).

On average, the absolute value of the stimulation vectors for all 93 sites with a significant effect was 0.85°/s (SD 0.39°/s) if the target was switched off during stimulation and 0.67°/s (SD 0.45°/s) if the target was continuously visible (see Fig. 7). In other words, in the transient absence of the pursuit target, microstimulation elicited a 27% larger effect. This difference was highly significant (P = 0.0048, t-test).


Figure 7
View larger version (11K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 7. Stimulation effect in the presence and absence of the moving target. A: absolute values of the stimulation vectors (n = 93) if the target was present or absent during microstimulation. Mean value in the absence of target is given by the horizontal dashed line. Mean value in the presence of the target is given by the vertical dashed line. B: histogram of the deviation of the stimulation vector and the preferred direction for all 93 sites with significant effects.

 
Finally, the direction of the stimulation vector computed by the postsaccadic velocity correlated significantly with the preferred direction of the pursuit-related activity recorded at the stimulation site (r = 0.037, P = 0.0009, circular correlation). The histogram of the deviation between both directions is shown in Fig. 7B. For most of the 93 stimulation sites, the deviation between stimulation vector and preferred direction was <45°.

In contrast to the effect on postsaccadic eye velocity, microstimulation did not affect the latency of the initial saccade [n = 93; mean control latency 392 ms (SD 28 ms), stimulated latency 412 ms (SD 52 ms), t-test: P = 0.1571]. Pursuit onset latency was also not affected by microstimulation (see Fig. 11, left).


Figure 11
View larger version (19K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 11. Pursuit onset latencies. Left: pursuit latencies during control and microstimulation (e-stim) averaged for all directions (mean and SD). Middle: pursuit latencies for leftward target movement. Right: latencies for rightward target movement during control and muscimol injections into either the right or left hemispheres.

 
Hand movements

The errors in hand movements were fit by a 2D Gaussian function as shown earlier (see Fig. 2). When we stimulated during a hand movement trial, the landing position of the finger deviated toward the preferred direction of the stimulated site (see Fig. 8, A and B). Of 39 tested stimulation sites in area MST-l of the two monkeys, we found 28 sites with significant effects on the pointing error (t-test, P < 0.05). The mean of the absolute values of the stimulation-induced shift in pointing was 1.6° (SD 1.7°, n = 28). At these sites, we found significant effects of the microstimulation on the postsaccadic eye velocity. Note that the fixation of the eye was not affected by microstimulation in this condition (t-test of eye position, n.s., P > 0.05 after Bonferroni adjustment). We did not observe a significant effect of microstimulation on hand movement onset latency [stimulation: 245 ms (SD 84 ms); control: 250 ms (SD 87 ms)] or on hand movement duration [stimulation: 267 ms (SD 17 ms); control: 267 ms (SD 18 ms); n.s., P > 0.05 after Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons].


Figure 8
View larger version (22K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 8. Effect of microstimulation on hand movements. Microstimulation resulted in a shift of hand movement toward the preferred direction of the stimulation site as shown. Pointing errors of single trials are shown in A together with the mean values of the 2D Gaussian fits (control trials are in gray; stimulated trials are in black). B: fitted 2D Gaussian functions (control: x0 = –0.4°, y0 = 0°, SD = 2.6°; microstimulation: x0 = 0.8°, y0 = 0.6°, SD = 2.8°). Black surface represents the 2D Gaussian function fit to data from stimulated trials; the gray surface corresponds to control trials without stimulation. Direction of the stimulation-induced shift was 25°; the preferred direction at this site was 37°. Two distributions are significantly different (P = 0.00049, t-test). Solid black line marks the zero-point. C: histogram of the deviations between the preferred direction of the pursuit-related activity and the stimulation vector for the 28 sites with significant effects on hand movements.

 
Similarly to the analysis carried out using stimulation vectors for eye movement data, we applied circular correlation to analyze the relationship between preferred direction and the direction of the stimulation vector for hand movements. We found a significant correlation between both directions (r = 0.04, P = 0.0116). The histogram of the deviation between both directions is shown in Fig. 8C.

Finally, we asked whether stimulation in MST triggered any other reaction in our monkeys. Based on the inspection of our video material, we never observed any motor response to the microstimulation other than the effects on eye and hand movements described above.

Specific effects of transient MST inactivation

Having documented the effects of an artificial increase in neuronal activity on goal-directed behavior, we next addressed the effects of an artificial decrease in neuronal activity in area MST-l. We performed transient lesions by injections of small amounts of muscimol (<4 µl) at previously explored sites in area MST-l. Typical examples of prelesion and postlesion pursuit eye movements are shown in Fig. 9. Steady-state pursuit velocity to the left (contraversive) was not affected by the injection of muscimol, whereas steady-state velocity to the right (ipsiversive) was clearly reduced.


Figure 9
View larger version (30K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 9. Prelesion and postlesion pursuit eye movements. A and B: target (thick gray lines) and single-trial eye position traces for leftward (A) and rightward (B) pursuit. Black traces: prelesion pursuit traces for monkey BH (injection into right hemisphere). Red traces: postlesion data. C and D: target velocity (gray lines), mean smooth eye velocity, and its SD, computed on desaccaded velocity profiles. Note that target motion onset was at 500 ms.

 
When we injected muscimol into area MST of the right hemisphere, the monkeys showed an impairment of steady-state pursuit velocity only if the target moved rightward (ipsiversive; see Fig. 10, A and B). If the target moved to the left, no change in eye velocity was observed. In contrast, if muscimol was injected into area MST-l of the left hemisphere, leftward steady-state pursuit was impaired (see Fig. 10C). Overall, we performed these transient lesions at 14 sites in three hemispheres of two monkeys as shown in Fig. 10. After every injection, we observed a reduction in steady-state pursuit velocity whenever the target moved ipsiversively with respect to the injected hemisphere (t-test, P < 0.05).


Figure 10
View larger version (14K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 10. Effects of transient deactivation of area MST on smooth-pursuit eye movements. Steady-state pursuit velocity is plotted against the stimulus velocity (5, 10, 20, and 30°/s, respectively) for monkeys BH (A) and GH (B and C). Each gray band shows the monkey's prelesion data based on 5 experiments, each consisting of ≥10 trial repetitions. Width of the gray band gives the SD of prelesion steady-state eye velocity, centered at its mean value. Note that the steady-state pursuit velocity was reduced compared with prelesion data only if the target moved toward the lesioned side.

 
Occasionally, we observed spontaneous nystagmus after muscimol injections in darkness. If this nystagmus occurred, the slow phases were always directed toward the contralateral side (with respect to the lesion).

The deficit in steady-state pursuit eye velocity was the only clear and robust effect of the muscimol injections on the monkeys' eye movements. For the other parameters (pursuit onset and initial saccade latency), we observed a rather idiosyncratic pattern of effects after each injection. There was a slight individual difference in pursuit onset latency for our monkeys: the latency of monkey BH was 117 ms (SD 15 ms, average across all control conditions shown in Fig. 11), whereas monkey GH started pursuit after 96 ms (SD 6 ms) after the onset of target movement. When we analyzed the effect of transient lesions (see Fig. 11), we found in two of three injected hemispheres (left hemisphere in BH and right hemisphere in GH) that the pursuit latency increased if the target moved to the contralateral side. Obviously, this increase can be explained by a position effect or scotoma contralateral to the injection, although it cannot be explained by a direction effect. Lesion of the left hemisphere in GH resulted in a significant increase of pursuit latency for both directions of target movement, suggesting the coexistence of a position effect and a direction effect.

We asked whether the changes in pursuit onset latency were also present in the latency of the initial saccades during pursuit initiation. Figure 12 gives the latencies of leftward and rightward saccades after inactivation of the right or left MST, respectively, together with the prelesion control values. Again, there was a slight difference in latency between our monkeys. In contrast to pursuit onset latencies, saccade latency in monkey BH [355 ms (SD 24 ms), average across all control conditions] was slightly shorter than that for monkey GH [452 ms (SD 26 ms)].


Figure 12
View larger version (24K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 12. Prelesion and postlesion latencies of the initial saccades during pursuit initiation. A, C, and E: leftward target movement. B, D, and F: rightward target movement. Black bars represent prelesion latencies and gray bars represent postlesion data. In addition to the histograms, mean and SD are given by the horizontal bars. P values from t-test are given.

 
As Fig. 12 shows, the data coarsely follow the pattern of the pursuit onset latencies. For lesions in the right hemisphere in monkeys BH and GH, latencies increased for leftward target movement, suggesting a position effect or scotoma. For the left lesion in GH, in which pursuit onset latencies increased for leftward and rightward target movements, only saccade latency to the left increased, indicating an ipsiversive direction effect.

Finally, to see whether these changes in saccadic latencies were linked to target motion or to target position, we also analyzed saccades toward stationary targets. However, the latency as well as the gain of these saccades did not show a clear lesion-dependent behavior, as shown in Fig. 13.


Figure 13
View larger version (28K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 13. Saccades toward stationary targets. A, B, and C: saccade latencies for 8 different target locations. D, E, and F: saccade gain for identical target locations. Each data point represents the mean for 10 saccades. A and D are taken from monkey BH, right hemisphere. B and E are taken from monkey GH, right hemisphere. C and F are taken from monkey GH, left hemisphere. Gray band shows the mean and its SD of prelesion data based on 100 saccades in each condition (*P < 0.05, t-test).

 
The individual difference between both monkeys was also present for saccades directed toward stationary targets. The mean value for all directions in the control condition was 201 ms (SD 16 ms) for monkey BH and 242 ms (SD 11 ms) for monkey GH.

In contrast to the unspecific effects on saccadic latency and gain, we observed consistent effects of microstimulation on goal-directed hand movements. There was a shift of the landing position toward the left visual field for injections into area MST-l of the right hemisphere (see Fig. 14). The shift in landing position was present and significant (P < 0.0001) for all 14 injection sites. In contrast to the directionally selective deficit in pursuit eye movements, this shift in pointing error toward the contralateral visual field did not depend on the direction of target movement. Figure 14, D and E gives the reaching error for both leftward and rightward moving targets. It is important to note that the prelesion pointing error depends on target movement direction: leftward target motion yielded an error to the left and vice versa. However, the difference in the horizontal component of the pointing error when the target moved ipsiversively compared with when it moved contraversively was not significant (t-test, P = 0.14, all 14 injection sites).


Figure 14
View larger version (19K):
[in this window]
[in a new window]

 
FIG. 14. Errors in hand movements toward a moving target. A: pointing errors in the visually guided hand movements of monkey GH while reaching for a moving target before (black symbols) and after muscimol injection (gray symbols). Crosses show the mean of the 2D Gaussian fit. Data are based on upward, downward, leftward, and rightward target trajectories. Each condition was repeated 40 times. Raw data were fitted by a 2D Gaussian function as shown in B (black prelesion, x0 = –0.2°, y0 = 1.2°, SD = 1.9°; gray postlesion, x0 = –4.4°, y0 = –0.6°, SD = 2.1°). Lesion-induced difference in the pointing error was significant (P < 0.0001, t-test). C: mean and SD of pointing error prelesion (dark gray) and in 6 transient lesions in area MST (light gray) in the right hemisphere of monkey BH for all directions of target movements. Differences for all 6 injections were significant (P < 0.0001, t-test). D: pointing error resulting from exclusive leftward (contraversive) target movements. E: pointing error for rightward (ipsiversive) target movements.

 
The transient lesions in area MST did not affect the duration of hand movements in either monkey. Average prelesion hand movement duration was 270 ms (SD 11 ms) for monkey BH and 234 ms (SD 9 ms) for monkey GH, whereas postlesion duration was 261 ms (SD 16 ms) and 235 ms (SD 4 ms), respectively (P > 0.1, t-test).


 DISCUSSION
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
The increase of eye velocity we obtained by microstimulation during the execution of smooth-pursuit eye movements is in strong agreement with results reported in earlier studies of areas MT and MST (Born et al. 2000Go; Groh et al. 1997Go; Komatsu and Wurtz 1989Go). The deficit in steady-state eye velocity exclusively for ipsiversive target movement also agrees with earlier findings in monkeys (Dursteler and Wurtz 1988Go; Yamasaki and Wurtz 1991Go) and with the description of patients suffering from unilateral lesions of the posterior parietal cortex (Leigh and Tusa 1985Go; Morrow and Sharpe 1990Go; Thurston et al. 1988Go). The similarity between the results from the literature and ours is far from trivial because in the older studies, chronic lesions were made. In the case of chronic lesions, there is a possibility of reorganization and recovery of function (Yamasaki and Wurtz 1991Go). In case of transient lesions, the recovery is attributed to the disappearance of the lesion itself.

Further support of the extraretinal signals in MST

We obtained larger effects of microstimulation on pursuit eye movements in the temporary absence of the target. As previously shown, MST-l neurons respond during the execution of pursuit eye movements to retinal image motion and eye movement (Ilg et al. 2004Go). Therefore in the transient absence of the target, the artificial, stimulation-induced activity solely competes with the eye movement signal. In contrast, during the presence of the pursuit target, the artificial activity has to compete against retinal image motion and eye movement signals. The fact that the neuronal activity of MST is determined by retinal image motion and by extraretinal signals related to the executed eye movements was recently also documented in humans by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Goossens et al. 2006Go). With respect to goal-directed hand movements, we failed to observe an effect of stimulation when the target was continuously present. In this condition, the monkeys most likely did not produce a ballistic hand movement based on a feedforward mechanism (Ariff et al. 2002Go); instead they likely used on-line visual feedback to direct their hand (Saunders and Knill 2005Go).

Phosphenes—attention—general disturbance

One might question whether our stimulation effects can be explained by phosphenes elicited by the microstimulation, i.e., that the monkeys simply directed their gaze and hand toward a phosphene. For stimulation in area V1, there is evidence that phosphenes are generated by microstimulation with parameters similar to those we used in our study (for review see Bradley et al. 2005Go; Tehovnik et al. 2005Go). However, there are two strong arguments against the idea that phosphenes played a role in our experiments. First, we never observed an effect during stationary fixation. During execution of pursuit, the sensitivity of the eye movement control system is greater than that during stationary fixation (Schwartz and Lisberger 1994Go). Second, the latency of the stimulation effects would be much longer if the monkeys reacted to phosphenes.

Microstimulation could have either disturbed mechanisms engaged in the focal direction of attention or generally disturbed the monkey by eliciting some level of discomfort. Neither explanation accounts for our findings because microstimulation did not simply reduce the accuracy of goal-directed behavior, but modified this behavior in a highly directional selective manner. In addition, we did not observe any changes in latency arising from microstimulation, which would be a clear indication of change in attentional state.

Recently, it was reported that microstimulation in MT resembles the learning of consistent changes in target trajectory (Carey et al. 2005Go). However, there is a clear argument that our results cannot be explained by mechanisms of motor learning: because stimulated and control trials were randomized, there was no consistent drive for learning mechanisms.

Finally, one might also ask whether our effects are explained by a specific impairment of the motion processing or, alternatively, by a more general impairment. The answer to this question is limited by the extent of our experimental data. If the effects arose from an impairment of motion processing, saccades or hand movements elicited by stationary targets should not have been affected by the microstimulation in MST. On the other hand, speed judgments addressed in psychophysical experiments should also have been affected. However, with respect to MST deactivation, gain and latency of saccades directed toward stationary target did not show a clear effect (see Fig. 13). This indicates that we indeed observed a specific impairment of motion processing. Further support of this notion is provided by the similarity of the effects of artificial activation and deactivation of MST on eye and hand movements, together with the clear correlation between the preferred pursuit direction and the stimulation vector.

Differentiation between effective and ineffective sites of microstimulation

The difference between effective and ineffective stimulation sites might be explained by the presence of cortical columns containing neurons with similar response properties (Mountcastle 1957Go). Effective sites—that is, sites at which microstimulation resulted in significant changes in postsaccadic eye velocity—were found when the position of the microelectrode was centered within a single cortical column or cluster in area MST (see Britten 1998Go). In this case, only neurons with similar properties were activated and therefore an effect on the ongoing eye or hand movement was detectable. Ineffective sites—that is, sites at which microstimulation did not produce significant changes in eye velocity—resulted from an electrode position close to the border between two columns, thereby stimulating neurons with different response properties. However, because we do not have experimental data supporting the hypothesis of a columnar or clustered structure in MST-l, this explanation remains speculative.

A second and alternative explanation for the existence of ineffective stimulation sites relates to the fact that extraretinal responses of MST neurons are selective not only for direction, but also for velocity (Churchland and Lisberger 2005bGo). If the preferred velocity of a given stimulation site would have been close to target velocity (10°/s), stimulation would not have been effective. Otherwise, we can assume that effective sites are characterized by representing higher preferred velocities as 10°/s. Because we did not determine the preferred velocity of each stimulation site, this explanation is similarly speculative as the first explanation.

Size of affected tissue

Microstimulation and injections of muscimol most likely affected different amounts of tissue in area MST-l. Microstimulation at effective sites most likely affected neuronal activity within a single cortical column. Assuming passive spread of current, it can be approximated that stimulation at 80 µA (used at most sites) affected cortical tissue within a radius of 0.1 mm (Stoney et al. 1968Go). However, a recent study using fMRI to reveal the size of the affected tissue showed that tissue within a radius of up to tenfold greater may have been affected (Tolias et al. 2005Go). The size of a column in area MST was estimated to be about 0.5 mm (Britten 1998Go). The amount of tissue affected by the muscimol injection was much larger; autoradiographic estimation of the extent of affected tissue (Martin 1991Go) suggests a radius of up to about 3 mm. Therefore the effect of the transient lesions on eye movements was a result of the reduction of activity within a large portion of MST-l in the targeted hemisphere, definitively not only of a single cortical column or cluster.

Common substrate of eye and hand movement control

This processing of visual motion is related not only to the generation of smooth-pursuit eye movements, but also to the generation of hand movements directed toward a moving target. As explained in the INTRODUCTION, there are arguments for a common neuronal substrate for eye and hand movements (Engel and Soechting 2000Go; Engel et al. 1999Go; von Donkelaar et al. 1992Go). In the same vein, it was previously shown that the population vector of area MT and MST represents the target trajectory during a manual-tracking task (Kruse et al. 2002Go). Similar results were obtained in a recent fMRI study addressing brain activity when subjects performed either eye or hand movements (Oreja-Guevara et al. 2004Go): hMT+ was similarly activated during both tasks. In addition, it was recently shown that disturbing processing in the posterior parietal cortex by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) prevents subjects from adapting to a velocity-dependent force field in a manual-tracking task (Della-Maggiore et al. 2004Go). These results, together with our own results, indicate that MST plays a role in the generation of goal-directed eye and hand movements. The question that arises here is how does the information from MST in the extrastriate cortex reach the motor cortex? There are two possibilities that need to be considered: first, cortico-cortical projections may enable the information transfer. Projections from MST to the frontal eye field are well documented (Boussaoud et al. 1990Go; Churchland and Lisberger 2005aGo). Alternatively, and more plausibly, the cortico-ponto-cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway might be responsible for the information transfer (Ramnani 2006Go). There are projections from MST to the pontine nuclei (Hoffmann et al. 2002Go; Ilg and Hoffmann 1993Go). Single-unit recordings from pontine nuclei have demonstrated responses to eye and hand movements (Matsunami 1987Go; Tziridis et al. 2004Go). Furthermore, Purkinje cells in the cerebellum are driven during manual tracking (Roitman et al. 2005Go) and during pursuit (Lisberger et al. 1987Go). Finally, the information could be sent from the cerebellum by thalamic relay to the motor cortex (Kelly and Strick 2003Go). It remains up to future polysynaptic connectivity studies to prove or disprove this possible scheme of cortico-cortical information transfer.


 GRANTS
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
This work was financially supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Grant SFB 550 A3, a DFG Heisenberg fellowship to U. Ilg, and the Hermann and Lilly Schilling Foundation.


 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
We thank U. Grosshennig for technical support throughout the entire study, T. Cooke for language assistance, P. Thier for many discussions, and G. Ugolini and W. Graf for the anatomy of both monkeys.


 FOOTNOTES
 
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: U. J. Ilg, Cognitive Neurology, Hertie-Institute of Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller Str. 27, D 72076 Tübingen, Germany (E-mail: uwe.ilg{at}uni-tuebingen.de)


 REFERENCES
 
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 GRANTS
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 REFERENCES
 
Ariff G, Donchin O, Nanayakkara T, Shadmehr R. A real-time state predictor in motor control: study of saccadic eye movements during unseen reaching movements. J Neurosci 22: 7721–7729, 2002.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Born RT, Groh JM, Zhao R, Lukasewycz SJ. Segregation of object and background motion in visual area MT: effects of microstimulation on eye movements. Neuron 26: 725–734, 2000.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Boussaoud D, Ungerleider LG, Desimone R. Pathways for motion analysis: cortical connections of the medial superior temporal and fundus of the superior temporal visual areas in the macaque. J Comp Neurol 296: 462–495, 1990.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Bradley DC, Troyk PR, Berg JA, Bak M, Cogan S, Erickson R, Kufta C, Mascaro M, McCreery D, Schmidt EM, Towle VL, Xu H. Visuotopic mapping through a multichannel stimulating implant in primate V1. J Neurophysiol 93: 1659–1670, 2005.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Britten KH. Clustering of response selectivity in the medial superior temporal area of extrastriate cortex in the macaque monkey. Vis Neurosci 15: 553–558, 1998.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Britten KH, van Wezel JA. Electrical microstimulation of cortical area MST biases heading perception in monkeys. Nat Neurosci 1: 59–63, 1998.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Britten KH, van Wezel RJ. Area MST and heading perception in macaque monkeys. Cereb Cortex 12: 692–701, 2002.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Carey MR, Medina JF, Lisberger SG. Instructive signals for motor learning from visual cortical area MT. Nat Neurosci 8: 813–819, 2005.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Carl JR, Gellman RS. Human smooth pursuit: stimulus-dependent responses. J Neurophysiology 57: 1446–1463, 1987.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Celebrini S, Newsome WT. Neuronal and psychophysical sensitivity to motion signals in extrastriate area MST of the macaque monkey. J Neurosci 14: 4109–4124, 1994.[Abstract]

Celebrini S, Newsome WT. Microstimulation of extrastriate area MST influences performance on a direction discrimination task. J Neurophysiol 73: 437–448, 1995.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Churchland AK, Lisberger SG. Discharge properties of MST neurons that project to the frontal pursuit area in macaque monkeys. J Neurophysiol 94: 1084–1090, 2005a.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Churchland AK, Lisberger SG. Relationship between extraretinal component of firing rate and eye speed in area MST of macaque monkeys. J Neurophysiol 94: 2416–2426, 2005b.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Della-Maggiore V, Malfait N, Ostry DJ, Paus T. Stimulation of the posterior parietal cortex interferes with arm trajectory adjustments during the learning of new dynamics. J Neurosci 24: 9971–9976, 2004.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Duffy CJ, Wurtz RH. Sensitivity of MST neurons to optic flow stimuli. I. A continuum of response selectivity to large-field stimuli. J Neurophysiol 65: 1329–1345, 1991.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Dursteler MR, Wurtz RH. Pursuit and optokinetic deficits following chemical lesions of cortical areas MT and MST. J Neurophysiol 60: 940–965, 1988.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Engel KC, Anderson JH, Soechting JF. Oculomotor tracking in two dimensions. J Neurophysiol 81: 1597–1602, 1999.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Engel KC, Soechting JF. Manual tracking in two dimensions. J Neurophysiol 83: 3483–3496, 2000.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Fisher NI. Statistical Analysis of Circular Data. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995.

Goossens J, Dukelow SP, Menon RS, Vilis T, van den Berg AV. Representation of head-centric flow in the human motion complex. J Neurosci 26: 5616–5627, 2006.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Groh JM, Born RT, Newsome WT. How is a sensory map read out? Effects of microstimulation in visual area MT on saccades and smooth pursuit eye movements. J Neurosci 17: 4312–4330, 1997.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Hamed SB, Page W, Duffy C, Pouget A. MSTd neuronal basis functions for the population encoding of heading direction. J Neurophysiol 90: 549–558, 2003.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Heuer HW, Britten KH. Optic flow signals in extrastriate area MST: comparison of perceptual and neuronal sensitivity. J Neurophysiol 91: 1314–1326, 2004.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Hoffmann KP, Bremmer F, Thiele A, Distler C. Directional asymmetry of neurons in cortical areas MT and MST projecting to the NOT-DTN in macaques. J Neurophysiol 87: 2113–2123, 2002.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Ilg UJ, Churan J. Motion perception without explicit activity in areas MT and MST. J Neurophysiol 92: 1512–1523, 2004.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Ilg UJ, Hoffmann KP. Functional grouping of the cortico-pretectal projection. J Neurophysiol 70: 867–869, 1993.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Ilg UJ, Schumann S, Thier P. Posterior parietal cortex neurons encode target motion in world-centered coordinates. Neuron 43: 145–151, 2004.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Ilg UJ, Thier P. Inability of rhesus monkey area V1 to discriminate between self-induced and externally induced retinal image slip. Eur J Neurosci 8: 1156–1166, 1996.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Ilg UJ, Thier P. Visual tracking neurons in primate area MST are activated by smooth-pursuit eye movements of an "imaginary" target. J Neurophysiol 90: 1489–1502, 2003.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Judge SJ, Richmond BJ, Chu FC. Implantation of magnetic search coils for measurement of eye position: an improved method. Vision Res 20: 535–538, 1980.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Kawano K, Shidara M, Watanabe Y, Yamane S. Neural activity in cortical area MST of alert monkey during ocular following responses. J Neurophysiol 71: 2305–2324, 1994.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Kelly RM, Strick PL. Cerebellar loops with motor cortex and prefrontal cortex of a nonhuman primate. J Neurosci 23: 8432–8444, 2003.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Komatsu H, Wurtz RH. Relation of cortical areas MT and MST to pursuit eye movements. I. Localization and visual properties of neurons. J Neurophysiol 60: 580–603, 1988.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Komatsu H, Wurtz RH. Modulation of pursuit eye movements by stimulation of cortical areas MT and MST. J Neurophysiol 62: 31–47, 1989.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Kruse W, Dannenberg S, Kleiser R, Hoffmann KP. Temporal relation of population activity in visual areas MT/MST and in primary motor cortex during visually guided tracking movements. Cereb Cortex 12: 466–476, 2002.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Leigh RJ, Tusa RJ. Disturbance of smooth pursuit caused by infarction of occipitoparietal cortex. Ann Neurol 17: 185–187, 1985.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Lisberger SG. Postsaccadic enhancement of initiation of smooth pursuit eye movements in monkeys. J Neurophysiol 79: 1918–1930, 1998.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Lisberger SG, Morris EJ, Tychsen L. Visual motion processing and sensory-motor integration for smooth pursuit eye movements. Annu Rev Neurosci 10: 97–129, 1987.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Lisberger SG, Movshon JA. Visual motion analysis for pursuit eye movements in area MT of macaque monkeys. J Neurosci 19: 2224–2246, 1999.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Martin JH. Autoradiographic estimation of the extent of reversible inactivation produced by microinjection of lidocaine and muscimol in the rat. Neurosci Lett 127: 160–164, 1991.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Matsunami K. Neuronal activity in nuclei pontis and reticularis tegmenti pontis related to forelimb movements of the monkey. Neurosci Res 5: 140–156, 1987.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Maunsell JH, van Essen DC. The connections of the middle temporal visual area (MT) and their relationship to a cortical hierarchy in the macaque monkey. J Neurosci 3: 2563–2586, 1983.[Abstract]

Morrow MJ, Sharpe JA. Cerebral hemispheric localization of smooth pursuit asymmetry. Neurology 40: 284–292, 1990.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Mountcastle VB. Modality and topographic properties of single neurons of cat's somatic sensory cortex. J Neurophysiol 20: 408–434, 1957.[Free Full Text]

Newsome WT, Wurtz RH, Komatsu H. Relation of cortical areas MT and MST to pursuit eye movements. II. Differentiation of retinal from extraretinal inputs. J Neurophysiol 60: 604–620, 1988.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Oreja-Guevara C, Kleiser R, Paulus W, Kruse W, Seitz RJ, Hoffmann KP. The role of V5 (hMT+) in visually guided hand movements: an fMRI study. Eur J Neurosci 19: 3113–3120, 2004.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Page WK, Duffy CJ. Heading representation in MST: sensory interactions and population encoding. J Neurophysiol 89: 1994–2013, 2003.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Ramnani N. The primate cortico-cerebellar system: anatomy and function. Nat Rev Neurosci 7: 511–522, 2006.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Robinson DA. A method of measuring eye movement using a scleral search coil in a magnetic field. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 10: 137–145, 1963.[Medline]

Roitman AV, Pasalar S, Johnson MT, Ebner TJ. Position, direction of movement, and speed tuning of cerebellar Purkinje cells during circular manual tracking in monkey. J Neurosci 25: 9244–9257, 2005.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Saunders JA, Knill DC. Humans use continuous visual feedback from the hand to control both the direction and distance of pointing movements. Exp Brain Res 162: 458–473, 2005.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Schwartz JD, Lisberger SG. Initial tracking conditions modulate the gain of visuo-motor transmission for smooth pursuit eye movements in monkeys. Vis Neurosci 11: 411–424, 1994.[Web of Science][Medline]

Stoney SD Jr, Thompson WD, Asanuma H. Excitation of pyramidal tract cells by intracortical microstimulation: effective extent of stimulating current. J Neurophysiol 31: 659–669, 1968.[Free Full Text]

Tehovnik EJ, Slocum WM, Carvey CE, Schiller PH. Phosphene induction and the generation of saccadic eye movements by striate cortex. J Neurophysiol 93: 1–19, 2005.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Thier P, Erickson RG. Responses of visual-tracking neurons from cortical area MST-l to visual, eye and head motion. Eur J Neurosci 4: 539–553, 1992.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Thurston SE, Leigh RJ, Crawford T, Thompson A, Kennard C. Two distinct deficits of visual tracking caused by unilateral lesions of cerebral cortex in humans. Ann Neurol 23: 266–273, 1988.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Tolias AS, Sultan F, Augath M, Oeltermann A, Tehovnik EJ, Schiller PH, Logothetis NK. Mapping cortical activity elicited with electrical microstimulation using fMRI in the macaque. Neuron 48: 901–911, 2005.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Tziridis K, Dicke PW, Thier P. Hand movement related single unit activity in the dorsal pontine nuclei of the rhesus monkey. Soc Neurosci Abstr 603.2, 2004.

Ungerleider LG, Desimone R. Cortical connections of visual area MT in the macaque. J Comp Neurol 248: 190–222, 1986.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

von Donkelaar P, Lee RG, Gellman RS. Control strategies in directing the hand to moving targets. Exp Brain Res 91: 151–161, 1992.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Yamasaki DS, Wurtz RH. Recovery of function after lesions in the superior temporal sulcus in the monkey. J Neurophysiol 66: 651–673, 1991.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Zemel RS, Sejnowski TJ. A model for encoding multiple object motions and self-motion in area MST of primate visual cortex. J Neurosci 18: 531–547, 1998.[Abstract/Free Full Text]




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Physiol. Rev.Home page
G. A. Orban
Higher Order Visual Processing in Macaque Extrastriate Cortex
Physiol Rev, January 1, 2008; 88(1): 59 - 89.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J. Neurosci.Home page
M. S. Beauchamp, N. E. Yasar, N. Kishan, and T. Ro
Human MST But Not MT Responds to Tactile Stimulation
J. Neurosci., August 1, 2007; 27(31): 8261 - 8267.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
97/1/761    most recent
00278.2006v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (10)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ilg, U. J.
Right arrow Articles by Schumann, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ilg, U. J.
Right arrow Articles by Schumann, S.


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Visit Other APS Journals Online
Copyright © 2007 by the The American Physiological Society.