Neural mechanisms for the representation of visual space during eye movements

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25830009
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Inaba Naoko 京都大学, 健康長寿社会の総合医療開発ユニット, 助教 (20432370)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KAWANO Kenji 京都大学, 健康長寿社会の総合医療開発ユニット, 特任教授 (40134530)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: サッケード / 追跡眼球運動 / 運動知覚 / 視覚ニューロン / 受容野 / MT野 / MST野 / 視覚情報処理

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Our eyes move rapidly and with an extremely high frequency of several times per second. Yet we are able to perceive the visual world as stable and continuous despite our eye movements, unlike camera's blur. How does our brain deal with the blurry retinal images resulting from self-eye-movements? In order to understand the neural mechanisms of the visual stability irrespective of eye movements, we recorded and analyzed neural activity in the MST area, which is part of the posterior parietal cortex of macaque monkeys. We have clarified that the MST area contributes to compensate for the retinal image motion induced by smooth pursuit eye movements, and also to recall visual information, that have pre-existed before saccadic eye movement, after the eye movement.

Free Research Field

システム神経生理学