Responses of MSTd and MT Neurons during Smooth Pursuit Exhibit Similar Temporal Frequency Dependence on Retinal Image Motion

Abstract

When our eyes are in constant motion, the world around us remains perceptually stable; although eye movements produce slips of the visual scene on our retinae. In our previous study, we suggested that visual motion in space is served by neurons, which compensate retinal-image motion due to pursuit eye movements, in the dorsal part of the medial superior temporal (MSTd) area. Additionally, neurons in the middle temporal (MT) area respond to retinal-image motion. In the present study, to further elucidate the visual properties of MSTd/MT neurons, we investigated the neuronal response to the motion of checkerboard patterns (CBPs) in addition to the random-dot pattern used in the previous study. We found that neuronal responses in both areas decreased regardless of fixation or pursuit when the temporal frequency of the CBPs exceeded 20 Hz on the retina. Our results support the idea that pursuit-speed compensation observed in area MSTd might be formed by the reception of retina-based visual information from MT neurons because both areas MT and MSTd were dependent on retina-based information during pursuit eye movements.