Neuronal activity related to anticipated and elapsed time in macaque supplementary eye field

• Published in: Experimental brain research 2008-02, Vol.184 (4), p.593-598
• Main Authors: Ohmae, Shogo, Lu, Xiaofeng, Takahashi, Toshimitsu, Uchida, Yusuke, Kitazawa, Shigeru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Action Potentials - physiology; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Electrophysiology; Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision; Eye movements; Frontal Lobe - cytology; Frontal Lobe - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Macaca; Motor control and motor pathways. Reflexes. Control centers of vegetative functions. Vestibular system and equilibration; Neurology; Neurons - classification; Neurons - physiology; Neurosciences; Photic Stimulation - methods; Reaction Time - physiology; Research Note; Saccades - physiology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Visual Perception - physiology
• ISSN: 0014-4819; 1432-1106
• DOI: 10.1007/s00221-007-1234-3

It is essential to sense anticipated and elapsed time in our daily life. Several areas of the brain including parietal cortex, prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia and olivo-cerebellar system are known to be related to this temporal processing. We now describe a number of cells in the supplementary eye field (SEF) with phasic, delay activity and postdelay activity modulation that varied with the length of the delay period. This variation occurred in two manners. First, cells became active with the shorter delay periods (GO signal presented earlier). We call these cells “short-delay cells”. Second, cells became active with the longer delay periods (GO signal presented later). We call these cells “long-delay cells”. However, such changed neuronal activity did not correlate with reaction time. These results suggest that the delay-dependent activity may reflect anticipated and elapsed time during performance of a delayed saccadic eye movement.