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Abstract
The superior colliculus (SC) is a subcortical brain structure that is relevant for sensation, cognition, and action. In nonhuman primates, a rich history of studies has provided unprecedented detail about this structure's role in controlling orienting behaviors; as a result, the primate SC has become primarily regarded as a motor control structure. However, as in other species, the primate SC is also a highly visual structure: A fraction of its inputs is retinal and complemented by inputs from visual cortical areas, including the primary visual cortex. Motivated by this, recent investigations are revealing the rich visual pattern analysis capabilities of the primate SC, placing this structure in an ideal position to guide orienting movements. The anatomical proximity of the primate SC to both early visual inputs and final motor control apparatuses, as well as its ascending feedback projections to the cortex, affirms an important role for this structure in active perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany;
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Chih-Yang Chen
- Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Biology, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan;
| | - Amarender R Bogadhi
- Central Nervous System Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Biberach, Germany;
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2
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Kehoe DH, Schießer L, Malik H, Fallah M. Motion distractors perturb saccade programming later in time than static distractors. CURRENT RESEARCH IN NEUROBIOLOGY 2023; 4:100092. [PMID: 37397809 PMCID: PMC10313862 DOI: 10.1016/j.crneur.2023.100092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2022] [Revised: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The mechanism that reweights oculomotor vectors based on visual features is unclear. However, the latency of oculomotor visual activations gives insight into their antecedent featural processing. We compared the oculomotor processing time course of grayscale, task-irrelevant static and motion distractors during target selection by continuously measuring a battery of human saccadic behavioral metrics as a function of time after distractor onset. The motion direction was towards or away from the target and the motion speed was fast or slow. We compared static and motion distractors and observed that both distractors elicited curved saccades and shifted endpoints at short latencies (∼25 ms). After 50 ms, saccade trajectory biasing elicited by motion distractors lagged static distractor trajectory biasing by 10 ms. There were no such latency differences between distractor motion directions or motion speeds. This pattern suggests that additional processing of motion stimuli occurred prior to the propagation of visual information into the oculomotor system. We examined the interaction of distractor processing time (DPT) with two additional factors: saccadic reaction time (SRT) and saccadic amplitude. Shorter SRTs were associated with shorter DPT latencies of biased saccade trajectories. Both SRT and saccadic amplitude were associated with the magnitude of saccade trajectory biases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Devin H. Kehoe
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
- Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
- VISTA: Vision Science to Applications, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
- Canadian Action and Perception Network, Canada
| | - Lukas Schießer
- Institute of Cognitive Science, Universität Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49074, Germany
| | - Hassaan Malik
- School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
| | - Mazyar Fallah
- Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
- Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
- VISTA: Vision Science to Applications, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
- Canadian Action and Perception Network, Canada
- School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada
- College of Biological Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada
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Klink PC, Teeuwen RRM, Lorteije JAM, Roelfsema PR. Inversion of pop-out for a distracting feature dimension in monkey visual cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2210839120. [PMID: 36812207 PMCID: PMC9992771 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2210839120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023] Open
Abstract
During visual search, it is important to reduce the interference of distracting objects in the scene. The neuronal responses elicited by the search target stimulus are typically enhanced. However, it is equally important to suppress the representations of distracting stimuli, especially if they are salient and capture attention. We trained monkeys to make an eye movement to a unique "pop-out" shape stimulus among an array of distracting stimuli. One of these distractors had a salient color that varied across trials and differed from the color of the other stimuli, causing it to also pop-out. The monkeys were able to select the pop-out shape target with high accuracy and actively avoided the pop-out color distractor. This behavioral pattern was reflected in the activity of neurons in area V4. Responses to the shape targets were enhanced, while the activity evoked by the pop-out color distractor was only briefly enhanced, directly followed by a sustained period of pronounced suppression. These behavioral and neuronal results demonstrate a cortical selection mechanism that rapidly inverts a pop-out signal to "pop-in" for an entire feature dimension thereby facilitating goal-directed visual search in the presence of salient distractors.
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Affiliation(s)
- P. Christiaan Klink
- Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Laboratory of Visual Brain Therapy, Sorbonne Université, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de la Vision, ParisF-75012, France
- Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Rob R. M. Teeuwen
- Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Jeannette A. M. Lorteije
- Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Pieter R. Roelfsema
- Department of Vision and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1105 BA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Laboratory of Visual Brain Therapy, Sorbonne Université, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de la Vision, ParisF-75012, France
- Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Adámek P, Langová V, Horáček J. Early-stage visual perception impairment in schizophrenia, bottom-up and back again. SCHIZOPHRENIA (HEIDELBERG, GERMANY) 2022; 8:27. [PMID: 35314712 PMCID: PMC8938488 DOI: 10.1038/s41537-022-00237-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Visual perception is one of the basic tools for exploring the world. However, in schizophrenia, this modality is disrupted. So far, there has been no clear answer as to whether the disruption occurs primarily within the brain or in the precortical areas of visual perception (the retina, visual pathways, and lateral geniculate nucleus [LGN]). A web-based comprehensive search of peer-reviewed journals was conducted based on various keyword combinations including schizophrenia, saliency, visual cognition, visual pathways, retina, and LGN. Articles were chosen with respect to topic relevance. Searched databases included Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science. This review describes the precortical circuit and the key changes in biochemistry and pathophysiology that affect the creation and characteristics of the retinal signal as well as its subsequent modulation and processing in other parts of this circuit. Changes in the characteristics of the signal and the misinterpretation of visual stimuli associated with them may, as a result, contribute to the development of schizophrenic disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petr Adámek
- Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. .,Center for Advanced Studies of Brain and Consciousness, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic.
| | - Veronika Langová
- Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.,Center for Advanced Studies of Brain and Consciousness, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic
| | - Jiří Horáček
- Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.,Center for Advanced Studies of Brain and Consciousness, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic
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Khademi F, Chen CY, Hafed ZM. Visual feature tuning of superior colliculus neural reafferent responses after fixational microsaccades. J Neurophysiol 2020; 123:2136-2153. [PMID: 32347160 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00077.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The primate superior colliculus (SC) is causally involved in microsaccade generation. Moreover, visually responsive SC neurons across this structure's topographic map, even at peripheral eccentricities much larger than the tiny microsaccade amplitudes, exhibit significant modulations of evoked response sensitivity when stimuli appear perimicrosaccadically. However, during natural viewing, visual stimuli are normally stably present in the environment and are only shifted on the retina by eye movements. Here we investigated this scenario for the case of microsaccades, asking whether and how SC neurons respond to microsaccade-induced image jitter. We recorded neural activity from two male rhesus macaque monkeys. Within the response field (RF) of a neuron, there was a stable stimulus consisting of a grating of one of three possible spatial frequencies. The grating was stable on the display, but microsaccades periodically jittered the retinotopic RF location over it. We observed clear short-latency visual reafferent responses after microsaccades. These responses were weaker, but earlier (relative to new fixation onset after microsaccade end), than responses to sudden stimulus onsets without microsaccades. The reafferent responses clearly depended on microsaccade amplitude as well as microsaccade direction relative to grating orientation. Our results indicate that one way for microsaccades to influence vision is through modulating how the spatio-temporal landscape of SC visual neural activity represents stable stimuli in the environment. Such representation depends on the specific pattern of temporal luminance modulations expected from the relative relationship between eye movement vector (size and direction) on one hand and spatial visual pattern layout on the other.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Despite being diminutive, microsaccades still jitter retinal images. We investigated how such jitter affects superior colliculus (SC) activity. We found that SC neurons exhibit short-latency visual reafferent bursts after microsaccades. These bursts reflect not only the spatial luminance profiles of visual patterns but also how such profiles are shifted by eye movement size and direction. These results indicate that the SC continuously represents visual patterns, even as they are jittered by the smallest possible saccades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Khademi
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Chih-Yang Chen
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany
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Kveraga K, Im HY, Ward N, Adams RB. Fast saccadic and manual responses to faces presented to the koniocellular visual pathway. J Vis 2020; 20:9. [PMID: 32097485 PMCID: PMC7343428 DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.2.9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The parallel pathways of the human visual system differ in their tuning to luminance, color, and spatial frequency. These attunements recently have been shown to propagate to differential processing of higher-order stimuli, facial threat cues, in the magnocellular (M) and parvocellular (P) pathways, with greater sensitivity to clear and ambiguous threat, respectively. The role of the third, koniocellular (K) pathway in facial threat processing, however, remains unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, we briefly presented peripheral face stimuli psychophysically biased towards M, P, or K pathways. Observers were instructed to report via a key-press whether the face was angry or neutral while their eye movements and manual responses were recorded. We found that short-latency saccades were made more frequently to faces presented in the K channel than to P or M channels. Saccade latencies were not significantly modulated by expressive and identity cues. In contrast, manual response latencies and accuracy were modulated by both pathway biasing and by interactions of facial expression with facial masculinity, such that angry male faces elicited the fastest, and angry female faces, the least accurate, responses. We conclude that face stimuli can evoke fast saccadic and manual responses when projected to the K pathway.
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Neuronavigated TMS of early visual cortex eliminates unconscious processing of chromatic stimuli. Neuropsychologia 2020; 136:107266. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2019] [Revised: 11/13/2019] [Accepted: 11/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Coubard OA. Commentary: Towards a unifying mechanism for cancelling movements. Front Psychol 2019; 10:879. [PMID: 31133913 PMCID: PMC6514224 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2018] [Accepted: 04/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Chen CY, Sonnenberg L, Weller S, Witschel T, Hafed ZM. Spatial frequency sensitivity in macaque midbrain. Nat Commun 2018; 9:2852. [PMID: 30030440 PMCID: PMC6054627 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05302-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2018] [Accepted: 06/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual brain areas exhibit tuning characteristics well suited for image statistics present in our natural environment. However, visual sensation is an active process, and if there are any brain areas that ought to be particularly in tune with natural scene statistics, it would be sensory-motor areas critical for guiding behavior. Here we found that the rhesus macaque superior colliculus, a structure instrumental for rapid visual exploration with saccades, detects low spatial frequencies, which are the most prevalent in natural scenes, much more rapidly than high spatial frequencies. Importantly, this accelerated detection happens independently of whether a neuron is more or less sensitive to low spatial frequencies to begin with. At the population level, the superior colliculus additionally over-represents low spatial frequencies in neural response sensitivity, even at near-foveal eccentricities. Thus, the superior colliculus possesses both temporal and response gain mechanisms for efficient gaze realignment in low-spatial-frequency-dominated natural environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chih-Yang Chen
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, 72076, Tuebingen, BW, Germany.,Graduate School of Neural and Behavioural Sciences, International Max Planck Research School, Tuebingen University, 72074, Tuebingen, BW, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, 72076, Tuebingen, BW, Germany
| | - Lukas Sonnenberg
- Master's Program for Neurobiology, Tuebingen University, 72076, Tuebingen, BW, Germany
| | - Simone Weller
- Master's Program for Neurobiology, Tuebingen University, 72076, Tuebingen, BW, Germany
| | - Thede Witschel
- Master's Program for Neurobiology, Tuebingen University, 72076, Tuebingen, BW, Germany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, 72076, Tuebingen, BW, Germany. .,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tuebingen University, 72076, Tuebingen, BW, Germany.
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Griggs WS, Amita H, Gopal A, Hikosaka O. Visual Neurons in the Superior Colliculus Discriminate Many Objects by Their Historical Values. Front Neurosci 2018; 12:396. [PMID: 29942248 PMCID: PMC6004417 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2018] [Accepted: 05/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The superior colliculus (SC) is an important structure in the mammalian brain that orients the animal toward distinct visual events. Visually responsive neurons in SC are modulated by visual object features, including size, motion, and color. However, it remains unclear whether SC activity is modulated by non-visual object features, such as the reward value associated with the object. To address this question, three monkeys were trained (>10 days) to saccade to multiple fractal objects, half of which were consistently associated with large rewards while other half were associated with small rewards. This created historically high-valued (‘good’) and low-valued (‘bad’) objects. During the neuronal recordings from the SC, the monkeys maintained fixation at the center while the objects were flashed in the receptive field of the neuron without any reward. We found that approximately half of the visual neurons responded more strongly to the good than bad objects. In some neurons, this value-coding remained intact for a long time (>1 year) after the last object-reward association learning. Notably, the neuronal discrimination of reward values started about 100 ms after the appearance of visual objects and lasted for more than 100 ms. These results provide evidence that SC neurons can discriminate objects by their historical (long-term) values. This object value information may be provided by the basal ganglia, especially the circuit originating from the tail of the caudate nucleus. The information may be used by the neural circuits inside SC for motor (saccade) output or may be sent to the circuits outside SC for future behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Whitney S Griggs
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Hidetoshi Amita
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Atul Gopal
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Okihide Hikosaka
- Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.,National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
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Kim K, Lee C. Activity of primate V1 neurons during the gap saccade task. J Neurophysiol 2017; 118:1361-1375. [PMID: 28615338 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00758.2016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2016] [Revised: 06/14/2017] [Accepted: 06/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
When a saccadic eye movement is made toward a visual stimulus, the variability in accompanying primary visual cortex (V1) activity is related to saccade latency in both humans and simians. To understand the nature of this relationship, we examined the functional link between V1 activity and the initiation of visually guided saccades during the gap saccade task, in which a brief temporal gap is inserted between the turning off of a fixation stimulus and the appearance of a saccadic target. The insertion of such a gap robustly reduces saccade latency and facilitates the occurrence of extremely short-latency (express) saccades. Here we recorded single-cell activity from macaque V1 while monkeys performed the gap saccade task. In parallel with the gap effect on saccade latency the neural latency (time of first spike) of V1 response elicited by the saccade target became shorter, and the firing rate increased as the gap duration increased. Similarly, neural latency was shorter and firing rate was higher before express saccades relative to regular-latency saccades. In addition to these posttarget changes, the level of spontaneous spike activity during the pretarget period was negatively correlated with both neural and saccade latencies. These results demonstrate that V1 activity correlates with the gap effect and indicate that trial-to-trial variability in the state of V1 accompanies the variability of neural and behavioral latencies.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The link between neural activity in monkey primary visual cortex (V1) and visually guided behavioral response is confirmed with the gap saccade paradigm. Results indicated that the variability in neural latency of V1 spike activity correlates with the gap effect on saccade latency and that the trial-to-trial variability in the state of V1 before the onset of saccade target correlates with the variability in neural and behavioral latencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kayeon Kim
- Department of Psychology, Seoul National University, Kwanak, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Choongkil Lee
- Department of Psychology, Seoul National University, Kwanak, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Abstract
The superior colliculus is one of the most well-studied structures in the brain, and with each new report, its proposed role in behavior seems to increase in complexity. Forty years of evidence show that the colliculus is critical for reorienting an organism toward objects of interest. In monkeys, this involves saccadic eye movements. Recent work in the monkey colliculus and in the homologous optic tectum of the bird extends our understanding of the role of the colliculus in higher mental functions, such as attention and decision making. In this review, we highlight some of these recent results, as well as those capitalizing on circuit-based methodologies using transgenic mice models, to understand the contribution of the colliculus to attention and decision making. The wealth of information we have about the colliculus, together with new tools, provides a unique opportunity to obtain a detailed accounting of the neurons, circuits, and computations that underlie complex behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michele A Basso
- Fuster Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Neurobiology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Brain Research Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095;
| | - Paul J May
- Department of Neurobiology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216
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Coubard OA. Commentary: Express saccades and superior colliculus responses are sensitive to short-wavelength cone contrast. Front Psychol 2017; 8:565. [PMID: 28458646 PMCID: PMC5394173 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2017] [Accepted: 03/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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14
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Monkey neurophysiology to clinical neuroscience and back again. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016; 113:6591-3. [PMID: 27226305 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1606344113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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