Changes in the response rate and response variability of area V4 neurons during saccade preparatio

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Changes in the response rate and response variability of area V4 neurons during saccade preparatio Nicholas Steinmetz1* and Tirin Moore1 1 Stanford University, United States The visually driven responses of macaque area V4 neurons are modulated during the preparation of saccadic eye movements, but the relationship between presaccadic modulation in area V4 and saccade preparation is poorly understood. Recent neurophysiological studies suggest that the variability across trials of spiking responses provides a more reliable signature of motor preparation than mean firing rate across trials. We compared the dynamics of the response rate and the variability in the rate across trials for area V4 neurons during the preparation of visually guided saccades. As in previous reports, we found that the mean firing rate of V4 neurons was enhanced when saccades were prepared to stimuli within a neuron’s receptive field (RF) in comparison with saccades to a non-RF location. Further, we found robust decreases in response variability prior to saccades and found that these decreases predicted saccadic reaction times for saccades both to RF and non-RF stimuli. Importantly, response variability predicted reaction time whether or not there were any accompanying changes in mean firing rate. In addition to predicting saccade direction, the mean firing rate could also predict reaction time, but only for saccades directed to the RF stimuli. These results demonstrate that response variability of area V4 neurons, like mean response rate, provides a signature of saccade preparation. However, the two signatures reflect complementary aspects of that preparation. Conference: Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2010, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, 25 Feb - 2 Mar, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster session I Citation: Steinmetz N and Moore T (2010). Changes in the response rate and response variability of area V4 neurons during saccade preparatio. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.03.00090 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 20 Feb 2010; Published Online: 20 Feb 2010. * Correspondence: Nicholas Steinmetz, Stanford University, Stanford, United States, nick.steinmetz@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Nicholas Steinmetz Tirin Moore Google Nicholas Steinmetz Tirin Moore Google Scholar Nicholas Steinmetz Tirin Moore PubMed Nicholas Steinmetz Tirin Moore Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.