Neural mechanisms underlying visual stability during saccades

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16009
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: University of Yamanashi (2017); Osaka University (2015-2016)
• Principal Investigator: KUMANO Hironori 山梨大学, 大学院総合研究部, 特任助教 (40568325)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: サッカード / 大脳皮質

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We make a fast eye movement, called a saccade, three times per second on average. Although the saccade is inevitably accompanied by rapid motion of retinal image, we never perceive such motion. To understand neural mechanisms underlying this visual stability, we recorded responses of single neurons in areas MT and MST while three monkeys performed a visually guided saccade task. We found that MST neurons consisted of two sub-populations, neurons with and without reversal of the preferred direction during saccades, whereas MT neurons did not. By applying a motion reverse correlation technique, we examined whether the neurons with reversal of preferred direction received facilitated inputs from motion in the anti-preferred direction during saccades. We did not find evidence for the hypothesis. Our results suggest that the brain achieves visual stability during saccades by summing the responses of two sub-populations of MST neurons.

Free Research Field

神経生理学