Disparity Sensitivity of Frontal Eye Field Neurons. Stefano Ferraina, Martin Paré, and Robert H. Wurtz. Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
APStracts 6:0493N, 1999.
Information about depth is necessary for saccades made to visual stimuli located in three-dimensional space. To determine whether monkey frontal eye field (FEF) neurons play a role in this visuo-motor process, we studied their visual responses to stimuli at different disparities. Disparity sensitivity was tested from 3° of crossed disparity (near) to 3° degrees of uncrossed disparity (far). The responses of about two thirds of FEF visual and visuo-movement neurons had disparity sensitivity and showed a broad tuning in depth for near or far disparities. Early phasic and late tonic visual responses often displayed a different disparity tuning. These findings provide evidence of depth-related signals in FEF, and suggest a possible role for FEF in the control of disconjugate as well as conjugate eye movements.
Received 27 August 1999; accepted in final form 24 September 1999.
APS Manuscript Number J730-9.
Article publication pending Journal of Neurophysiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1999 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 21 December 1999