Abstract
Previous studies have identified several cortical regions that show larger BOLD responses during preparation and execution of anti-saccades than pro-saccades. We confirmed this finding with a greater BOLD response for anti-saccades than pro-saccades during the preparation phase in the FEF, IPS and DLPFC and in the FEF and IPS in the execution phase. We then applied multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to establish whether different neural populations are involved in the two types of saccade. Pro-saccades and anti-saccades were reliably decoded during saccade execution in all three cortical regions (FEF, DLPFC and IPS) and in IPS during saccade preparation. This indicates neural specialization, for programming the desired response depending on the task rule, in these regions. In a further study tailored for imaging the superior colliculus in the midbrain a similar magnitude BOLD response was observed for pro-saccades and anti-saccades and the two saccade types could not be decoded with MVPA. This was the case both for activity related to the preparation phase and also for that elicited during the execution phase. We conclude that separate cortical neural populations are involved in the task-specific programming of a saccade while in contrast, the SC has a role in response preparation but may be less involved in high-level, task-specific aspects of the control of saccades.
Highlights
Under normal viewing conditions humans and non-human primates make saccadic eye movements in order to direct their gaze onto objects of interest for a period of relatively steady fixation for detailed visual analysis [1]
Given the low amount of errors produced by the participants, all the trials were taken in account for the analysis
They showed that the classifier could distinguish saccade direction in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) well for both forms of saccades, and in the PCS accuracy was increased for internally generated saccades consistent with this region having a greater role in volitional control
Summary
Under normal viewing conditions humans and non-human primates make saccadic eye movements in order to direct their gaze onto objects of interest for a period of relatively steady fixation for detailed visual analysis [1]. Saccadic eye movements are typically directed towards a peripheral stimulus (called a ‘pro-saccade’), but they can be directed away from the stimulus on the basis of an instruction (an anti-saccade) as shown in the first studies by Hallett [2,3]. Both pro- and anti- saccades are under voluntary control [4], but performing an anti-saccade is more cognitively demanding than generating a pro-saccade. The apparent simplicity of the anti-saccade task has made it a useful tool for investigating the underlying basis of higher-level cognitive control processes [5,6]
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