Abstract
The close relationship between saccadic eye movements and vision complicates the identification of neural responses associated with each function. Visual and saccade-related responses are especially closely intertwined in a subdivision of posterior parietal cortex, the lateral parietal area (LIP). We analyzed LIP neurons using an antisaccade task in which monkeys made saccades away from a salient visual cue. The vast majority of neurons reliably signaled the location of the visual cue. In contrast, most neurons had only weak, if any, saccade-related activity independent of visual stimulation. Thus, whereas the great majority of LIP neurons reliably encoded cue location, only a small minority encoded the direction of the upcoming saccade.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Jay Edelman for discussions and comments that helped to improve the manuscript. We are grateful to the staff of the National Eye Institute for assistance in all aspects of this work, James Raber and Ginger Tansey for veterinary care, John W. McClurkin for display programming, Thomas Ruffner and Altah Nichols for machining, Lee Jensen for electronics, Mitchell Smith for histology, Art Hays for computer systems, Brian Keegan for technical assistance, and Becky Harvey and Jean Steinberg for facilitating everything. The Laboratory of Diagnostic Radiology of the Clinical Center provided MRI services.
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Gottlieb, J., Goldberg, M. Activity of neurons in the lateral intraparietal area of the monkey during an antisaccade task. Nat Neurosci 2, 906–912 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/13209
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/13209
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