Influence of task predictability on the activity of neurons in the rostral superior colliculus during double-step
saccades
V.F. Reyes-Puerta, R. Philipp, W. Lindner, L. Lünenburger & K.-P. Hoffmann
J.Neurophysiol. in press
- Target probability has been shown to modulate motor preparatory activity of neurons in the caudal superior
colliculus (SC) of the primate. Here we tested whether top-down processes, such as task predictability, influence
the activity of neurons also at the rostral pole of the SC (rSC), classically related to fixation. To investigate
this, double-step saccade tasks were embedded in two different paradigms, one containing unpredictable and another
containing predictable tasks. During predictable tasks the animals could develop some expectation about the forthcoming
second target jump, i.e., anticipate when and where to make the second saccade. Neuronal responses were recorded
during both paradigms and compared, revealing the influence of task predictability on the activity of rSC neurons
during specific periods of fixation. In particular, neuronal activity stayed significantly lower during the fixation
period between two successive saccades in predictable than in unpredictable tasks. In addition there was a learning
effect within a session during predictable conditions, i.e., the intersaccadic activity was higher in the early
than in the late trials. Further, reaction times for the second saccade were shorter in predictable than in unpredictable
tasks. However, we demonstrated that this difference in reaction times cannot be solely accounted for by the reported
difference in neural activity, which was mainly influenced by the predictability of the tasks. With these results
we show that top-down processes such as predictability are imposed on the activity of neurons in the rostral pole
of the primate SC.
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