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J Neurophysiol (January 10, 2007). doi:10.1152/jn.00848.2006
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Submitted on August 12, 2006
Accepted on December 28, 2006

Impact of Experience on the Representation of Object-Centered Space in the Macaque Supplementary Eye Field

David E. Moorman1 and Carl R Olson2*

1 Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, United States; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
2 Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States; Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, United States

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: colson{at}cnbc.cmu.edu.

Many neurons in the macaque supplementary eye field (SEF) exhibit object-centered spatial selectivity, firing at different rates when the monkey plans a saccade to the left or right end of a horizontal bar. Is this property natural to the supplementary eye field or is it a product of specialized training in the laboratory? To answer this question, we monitored the activity of single SEF neurons in two monkeys before and after training to select eye-movement targets by an object-centered rule. During stage 1, the monkeys performed a color delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task in which a red or green central cue dictated an eye movement to the matching end of a horizontal bar. Many neurons at this stage exhibited object-centered spatial selectivity. During stage 2, the monkeys performed a color-conditional object-centered task in which a green or red central cue instructed an eye movement to the left or right end of a gray bar. More neurons exhibited object-centered spatial selectivity during this stage than during stage 1. During stage 3, the monkeys again performed the color DMS task. The fraction of neurons exhibiting object-centered spatial selectivity remained at a level comparable to that observed during stage 2 and above that observed during stage 1. Thus object-centered spatial selectivity was present before training on an object-centered rule, was enhanced as a product of object-centered training, and outlasted active use of an object-centered rule. We conclude that neural representations of object-centered space, naturally present in the primate brain, can be sharpened by training.







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