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Executive control of countermanding saccades by the supplementary eye field

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 925–931 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The supplementary eye field registers the occurrence of conflict, errors and reward in macaque monkeys performing a saccade-countermanding task. Using intracortical microstimulation, we determined whether the supplementary eye field only monitors or can actually influence performance. Weak microstimulation of many sites in the supplementary eye field improved monkeys' performance on a 'stop signal' task by delaying saccade initiation. This effect depended on the context of the task because simple visually guided saccades were not delayed by the same stimulation. These results demonstrate that the supplementary eye field can exert contextual executive control over saccade generation.

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Figure 1: Countermanding task.
Figure 2: Representative results from three sites in the SEF.
Figure 3: Inhibition functions averaged across all sites with a particular pattern of effects.
Figure 4: Magnitude of the shift in the inhibition function produced by SEF stimulation.
Figure 5: Context-dependent effect of SEF microstimulation on saccade latency.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Reis for help with the figures and L. Boucher, J. Brown, S. Hsiao, E. Niebur, P. Pouget and K. Thompson for helpful comments. V.S. was supported by a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft research fellowship (STU 272/1-1). This work was also supported by R. Patton through the E. Bronson Ingram Chair of Neuroscience at Vanderbilt University and by the US National Institutes of Health (grants RO1-MH55806, P30-EY08126 and P30-HD015052).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative & Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Wilson Hall, 111 21st Avenue South, Nashville, 37203, Tennessee, USA

    Veit Stuphorn & Jeffrey D Schall

  2. Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 362 Krieger Hall, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    Veit Stuphorn

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Correspondence to Veit Stuphorn.

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Stuphorn, V., Schall, J. Executive control of countermanding saccades by the supplementary eye field. Nat Neurosci 9, 925–931 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1714

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