1
|
Greilich J, Baumann MP, Hafed ZM. Microsaccadic suppression of peripheral perceptual detection performance as a function of foveated visual image appearance. J Vis 2024; 24:3. [PMID: 39365250 PMCID: PMC11457924 DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.11.3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 09/02/2024] [Indexed: 10/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Microsaccades are known to be associated with a deficit in perceptual detection performance for brief probe flashes presented in their temporal vicinity. However, it is still not clear how such a deficit might depend on the visual environment across which microsaccades are generated. Here, and motivated by studies demonstrating an interaction between visual background image appearance and perceptual suppression strength associated with large saccades, we probed peripheral perceptual detection performance of human subjects while they generated microsaccades over three different visual backgrounds. Subjects fixated near the center of a low spatial frequency grating, a high spatial frequency grating, or a small white fixation spot over an otherwise gray background. When a computer process detected a microsaccade, it presented a brief peripheral probe flash at one of four locations (over a uniform gray background) and at different times. After collecting full psychometric curves, we found that both perceptual detection thresholds and slopes of psychometric curves were impaired for peripheral flashes in the immediate temporal vicinity of microsaccades, and they recovered with later flash times. Importantly, the threshold elevations, but not the psychometric slope reductions, were stronger for the white fixation spot than for either of the two gratings. Thus, like with larger saccades, microsaccadic suppression strength can show a certain degree of image dependence. However, unlike with larger saccades, stronger microsaccadic suppression did not occur with low spatial frequency textures. This observation might reflect the different spatiotemporal retinal transients associated with the small microsaccades in our study versus larger saccades.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Julia Greilich
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Matthias P Baumann
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - 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
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Bogadhi AR, Hafed ZM. Express detection of visual objects by primate superior colliculus neurons. Sci Rep 2023; 13:21730. [PMID: 38066070 PMCID: PMC10709564 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-48979-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 12/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Primate superior colliculus (SC) neurons exhibit visual feature tuning properties and are implicated in a subcortical network hypothesized to mediate fast threat and/or conspecific detection. However, the mechanisms through which SC neurons contribute to peripheral object detection, for supporting rapid orienting responses, remain unclear. Here we explored whether, and how quickly, SC neurons detect real-life object stimuli. We presented experimentally-controlled gray-scale images of seven different object categories, and their corresponding luminance- and spectral-matched image controls, within the extrafoveal response fields of SC neurons. We found that all of our functionally-identified SC neuron types preferentially detected real-life objects even in their very first stimulus-evoked visual bursts. Intriguingly, even visually-responsive motor-related neurons exhibited such robust early object detection. We further identified spatial frequency information in visual images as an important, but not exhaustive, source for the earliest (within 100 ms) but not for the late (after 100 ms) component of object detection by SC neurons. Our results demonstrate rapid and robust detection of extrafoveal visual objects by the SC. Besides supporting recent evidence that even SC saccade-related motor bursts can preferentially represent visual objects, these results reveal a plausible mechanism through which rapid orienting responses to extrafoveal visual objects can be mediated.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Amarender R Bogadhi
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller Str. 25, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
- Central Nervous System Diseases Research, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, 88400, Biberach, Germany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller Str. 25, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Heusser MR, Jagadisan UK, Gandhi NJ. Drifting population dynamics with transient resets characterize sensorimotor transformation in the monkey superior colliculus. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.01.03.522634. [PMID: 36711849 PMCID: PMC9881850 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.03.522634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
To produce goal-directed eye movements known as saccades, we must channel sensory input from our environment through a process known as sensorimotor transformation. The behavioral output of this phenomenon (an accurate eye movement) is straightforward, but the coordinated activity of neurons underlying its dynamics is not well understood. We searched for a neural correlate of sensorimotor transformation in the activity patterns of simultaneously recorded neurons in the superior colliculus (SC) of three male rhesus monkeys performing a visually guided, delayed saccade task. Neurons in the intermediate layers produce a burst of spikes both following the appearance of a visual (sensory) stimulus and preceding an eye movement command, but many also exhibit a sustained activity level during the intervening time ("delay period"). This sustained activity could be representative of visual processing or motor preparation, along with countless cognitive processes. Using a novel measure we call the Visuomotor Proximity Index (VMPI), we pitted visual and motor signals against each other by measuring the degree to which each session's population activity (as summarized in a low-dimensional framework) could be considered more visual-like or more motor-like. The analysis highlighted two salient features of sensorimotor transformation. One, population activity on average drifted systematically toward a motor-like representation and intermittently reverted to a visual-like representation following a microsaccade. Two, activity patterns that drift to a stronger motor-like representation by the end of the delay period may enable a more rapid initiation of a saccade, substantiating the idea that this movement initiation mechanism is conserved across motor systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michelle R Heusser
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Uday K Jagadisan
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Neeraj J Gandhi
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Bourrelly C, Massot C, Gandhi NJ. Rapid Input-Output Transformation between Local Field Potential and Spiking Activity during Sensation but not Action in the Superior Colliculus. J Neurosci 2023; 43:4047-4061. [PMID: 37127365 PMCID: PMC10255026 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2318-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Revised: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 04/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Sensorimotor transformation is the sequential process of registering a sensory signal in the environment and then responding with the relevant movement at an appropriate time. For visually guided eye movements, neural signatures in the form of spiking activity of neurons have been extensively studied along the dorsoventral axis of the superior colliculus (SC). In contrast, the local field potential (LFP), which represents the putative input to a region, remains largely unexplored in the SC. We therefore compared amplitude levels and onset times of both spike bursts and LFP modulations recorded simultaneously with a laminar probe along the dorsoventral axis of SC in 3 male monkeys performing the visually guided delayed saccade task. Both signals displayed a gradual transition from sensory activity in the superficial layers to a predominantly motor response in the deeper layers, although the transition from principally sensory to mostly motor response occurred ∼500 μm deeper for the LFP. For the sensory response, LFP modulation preceded spike burst onset by <5 ms in the superficial and intermediate layers and only when data were analyzed on a trial-by-trial basis. The motor burst in the spiking activity led LFP modulation by >25 ms in the deeper layers. The results reveal a fast and efficient input-output transformation between LFP modulation and spike burst in the visually responsive layers activity during sensation but not during action. The spiking pattern observed during the movement phase is likely dominated by intracollicular processing that is not captured in the LFP.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT What is the sequence of events between local field potential (LFP) modulation and spiking activity during sensorimotor transformation? A trial-by-trial analysis reveals that the LFP activity leads the spike burst in the superficial and intermediate layers of the superior colliculus during visual processing, while both trial-by-trial and the average analyses show that the spike burst leads the LFP modulation during movement generation. These results suggest an almost instantaneous LFP input, spike burst output transformation in the visually responsive layers of the superior colliculus when registering the stimulus. In contrast, substantial intracollicular processing likely results in a saccade-related spike burst that leads LFP modulation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Clara Bourrelly
- Departments of Bioengineering
- Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
| | - Corentin Massot
- Departments of Bioengineering
- Neurobiology
- Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
| | - Neeraj J Gandhi
- Departments of Bioengineering
- Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
- Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Wen M, Dong Z, Zhang L, Li B, Zhang Y, Li K. Depression and Cognitive Impairment: Current Understanding of Its Neurobiology and Diagnosis. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 2022; 18:2783-2794. [PMID: 36471744 PMCID: PMC9719265 DOI: 10.2147/ndt.s383093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Eye movement is critical for obtaining precise visual information and providing sensorimotor processes and advanced cognitive functions to the brain behavioral indicator. METHODS In this article, we present a narrative review of the eye-movement paradigms (such as fixation, smooth pursuit eye movements, and memory-guided saccade tasks) in major depression. RESULTS Characteristics of eye movement are considered to reflect several aspects of cognitive deficits regarded as an aid to diagnosis. Findings regarding depressive disorders showed differences from the healthy population in paradigms, the characteristics of eye movement may reflect cognitive deficits in depression. Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of different eye movement paradigms for MDD screening. CONCLUSION Depression can be distinguished from other mental illnesses based on eye movements. Eye movement reflects cognitive deficits that can help diagnose depression, and it can make the entire diagnostic process more accurate.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Min Wen
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, People's Republic of China.,Hebei Provincial Mental Health Center, Baoding, People's Republic of China.,Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Major Mental and Behavioral Disorders, Baoding, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhen Dong
- Hebei Provincial Mental Health Center, Baoding, People's Republic of China
| | - Lili Zhang
- Hebei Provincial Mental Health Center, Baoding, People's Republic of China
| | - Bing Li
- Hebei Provincial Mental Health Center, Baoding, People's Republic of China.,Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Major Mental and Behavioral Disorders, Baoding, People's Republic of China
| | - Yunshu Zhang
- Hebei Provincial Mental Health Center, Baoding, People's Republic of China.,Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Major Mental and Behavioral Disorders, Baoding, People's Republic of China
| | - Keqing Li
- Hebei Provincial Mental Health Center, Baoding, People's Republic of China.,Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Major Mental and Behavioral Disorders, Baoding, People's Republic of China
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Buonocore A, Tian X, Khademi F, Hafed ZM. Instantaneous movement-unrelated midbrain activity modifies ongoing eye movements. eLife 2021; 10:e64150. [PMID: 33955354 PMCID: PMC8143798 DOI: 10.7554/elife.64150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2020] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
At any moment in time, new information is sampled from the environment and interacts with ongoing brain state. Often, such interaction takes place within individual circuits that are capable of both mediating the internally ongoing plan as well as representing exogenous sensory events. Here, we investigated how sensory-driven neural activity can be integrated, very often in the same neuron types, into ongoing saccade motor commands. Despite the ballistic nature of saccades, visually induced action potentials in the rhesus macaque superior colliculus (SC), a structure known to drive eye movements, not only occurred intra-saccadically, but they were also associated with highly predictable modifications of ongoing eye movements. Such predictable modifications reflected a simultaneity of movement-related discharge at one SC site and visually induced activity at another. Our results suggest instantaneous readout of the SC during movement generation, irrespective of activity source, and they explain a significant component of kinematic variability of motor outputs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Antimo Buonocore
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
| | - Xiaoguang Tian
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
| | - Fatemeh Khademi
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
| | - Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen UniversityTübingenGermany
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Hafed ZM, Yoshida M, Tian X, Buonocore A, Malevich T. Dissociable Cortical and Subcortical Mechanisms for Mediating the Influences of Visual Cues on Microsaccadic Eye Movements. Front Neural Circuits 2021; 15:638429. [PMID: 33776656 PMCID: PMC7991613 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2021.638429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2020] [Accepted: 02/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual selection in primates is intricately linked to eye movements, which are generated by a network of cortical and subcortical neural circuits. When visual selection is performed covertly, without foveating eye movements toward the selected targets, a class of fixational eye movements, called microsaccades, is still involved. Microsaccades are small saccades that occur when maintaining precise gaze fixation on a stationary point, and they exhibit robust modulations in peripheral cueing paradigms used to investigate covert visual selection mechanisms. These modulations consist of changes in both microsaccade directions and frequencies after cue onsets. Over the past two decades, the properties and functional implications of these modulations have been heavily studied, revealing a potentially important role for microsaccades in mediating covert visual selection effects. However, the neural mechanisms underlying cueing effects on microsaccades are only beginning to be investigated. Here we review the available causal manipulation evidence for these effects' cortical and subcortical substrates. In the superior colliculus (SC), activity representing peripheral visual cues strongly influences microsaccade direction, but not frequency, modulations. In the cortical frontal eye fields (FEF), activity only compensates for early reflexive effects of cues on microsaccades. Using evidence from behavior, theoretical modeling, and preliminary lesion data from the primary visual cortex and microstimulation data from the lower brainstem, we argue that the early reflexive microsaccade effects arise subcortically, downstream of the SC. Overall, studying cueing effects on microsaccades in primates represents an important opportunity to link perception, cognition, and action through unaddressed cortical-subcortical neural interactions. These interactions are also likely relevant in other sensory and motor modalities during other active behaviors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ziad M. Hafed
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Masatoshi Yoshida
- Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Xiaoguang Tian
- Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| | - Antimo Buonocore
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Tatiana Malevich
- Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
- Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
- Graduate School of Neural and Behavioural Sciences, International Max-Planck Research School, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Hafed ZM, Chen CY, Tian X, Baumann MP, Zhang T. Active vision at the foveal scale in the primate superior colliculus. J Neurophysiol 2021; 125:1121-1138. [PMID: 33534661 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00724.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The primate superior colliculus (SC) has recently been shown to possess both a large foveal representation as well as a varied visual processing repertoire. This structure is also known to contribute to eye movement generation. Here, we describe our current understanding of how SC visual and movement-related signals interact within the realm of small eye movements associated with the foveal scale of visuomotor behavior. Within the SC's foveal representation, there is a full spectrum of visual, visual-motor, and motor-related discharge for fixational eye movements. Moreover, a substantial number of neurons only emit movement-related discharge when microsaccades are visually guided, but not when similar movements are generated toward a blank. This represents a particularly striking example of integrating vision and action at the foveal scale. Beyond that, SC visual responses themselves are strongly modulated, and in multiple ways, by the occurrence of small eye movements. Intriguingly, this impact can extend to eccentricities well beyond the fovea, causing both sensitivity enhancement and suppression in the periphery. Because of large foveal magnification of neural tissue, such long-range eccentricity effects are neurally warped into smaller differences in anatomical space, providing a structural means for linking peripheral and foveal visual modulations around fixational eye movements. Finally, even the retinal-image visual flows associated with tiny fixational eye movements are signaled fairly faithfully by peripheral SC neurons with relatively large receptive fields. These results demonstrate how studying active vision at the foveal scale represents an opportunity for understanding primate vision during natural behaviors involving ever-present foveating eye movements.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The primate superior colliculus (SC) is ideally suited for active vision at the foveal scale: it enables detailed foveal visual analysis by accurately driving small eye movements, and it also possesses a visual processing machinery that is sensitive to active eye movement behavior. Studying active vision at the foveal scale in the primate SC is informative for broader aspects of active perception, including the overt and covert processing of peripheral extra-foveal visual scene locations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ziad M Hafed
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Chih-Yang Chen
- Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Biology (WPI-ASHBi), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Xiaoguang Tian
- University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Matthias P Baumann
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Tong Zhang
- Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany.,Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|