Information processing by parafoveal cells in the primate nucleus of the optic tract

We recorded from single units in the pretectal nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) of the nonhuman primate. Specifically, we examined units that are modulated during smooth tracking of a small laser spot against a dark background. We used a nonlinear optimization procedure to determine whether the unit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental brain research 2001-10, Vol.140 (3), p.301-310
Main Authors: DAS, Vallabh E, ECONOMIDES, J. R, ONO, S, MUSTARI, M. J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Potentials - physiology
Animal models
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Blinking - physiology
Eye
Eye and associated structures. Visual pathways and centers. Vision
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Information processing
Lasers
Macaca mulatta
Models, Neurological
Motion Perception - physiology
Neurons - physiology
Optic tract
Orientation - physiology
parafoveal cells
Photic Stimulation
Pretectal nuclear complex
pretectal nucleus of the optic tract
Primates
Pursuit, Smooth - physiology
Retina
Retina - cytology
Retina - physiology
Smooth pursuit eye movements
Statistical analysis
Superior Colliculi - cytology
Superior Colliculi - physiology
Velocity
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
Visual Pathways - cytology
Visual Pathways - physiology
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We recorded from single units in the pretectal nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) of the nonhuman primate. Specifically, we examined units that are modulated during smooth tracking of a small laser spot against a dark background. We used a nonlinear optimization procedure to determine whether the unit responses of these parafoveal cells are better described by a model that incorporates retinal error motion parameters or by a model that incorporates eye motion parameters. Our main finding was that all the cells in our sample group were better fit with a three-component model that incorporated retinal error motion parameters of position, velocity and acceleration (average coefficient of determination = 0.84) than a model that used position, velocity and acceleration components of eye motion (average coefficient of determination = 0.68). Other analyses involved comparison of goodness of fit between the three-component retinal error model and two-component retinal error models that excluded position or acceleration related terms. We found that there was a statistically significant degradation in the fit when position and acceleration related terms were dropped from the retinal error based model (P
ISSN:0014-4819
1432-1106
DOI:10.1007/s002210100816