Functional division of neural system based on saccade eccentricity and visual features driving visual overt attention

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K16015
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: Kaneko Takaaki 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 脳神経科学研究センター, 研究員 (50744372)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: サッカード / fMRI / マーモセット / 眼球運動 / Active vision

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The present study aimed to map the cortical eye-fields of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), a small New World primate by means of the whole brain fMRI recording. The marmoset performed either visually guided saccades or fixation inside a 9.4T MRI scanner. In frontal cortex, BOLD activation was observed in area 8aV, which is a putative marmoset’s FEF. BOLD activation was also observed in parietal/occipital region. The present study showed that marmosets saccadic eye-movements is rather limited in amplitude comparing to macaque or human, however the cortical eye-fields exist at multiple distinctive regions in frontal and parietal and occipital cortex of the marmoset brain as similarly to other primates.The present study suggests that core functional architecture of the cortical network for the active visual exploration were shared among anthropoid primate species.

Free Research Field

神経科学