Neural encoding of instantaneous kinematics of eye-head gaze shifts in monkey superior Colliculus.

ABSTRACT: The midbrain superior colliculus is a crucial sensorimotor stage for programming and generating saccadic eye-head gaze shifts. Although it is well established that superior colliculus cells encode a neural command that specifies the amplitude and direction of the upcoming gaze-shift vector, there is controversy about the role of the firing-rate dynamics of these neurons during saccades. In our earlier work, we proposed a simple quantitative model that explains how the recruited superior colliculus population may specify the detailed kinematics (trajectories and velocity profiles) of head-restrained saccadic eye movements. We here show that the same principles may apply to a wide range of saccadic eye-head gaze shifts with strongly varying kinematics, despite the substantial nonlinearities

SUBMITTER: van Opstal AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10492853 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature