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Comparing frontal eye field and superior colliculus contributions to covert spatial attention

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  • Anil Bollimunta

    (National Eye Institute)

  • Amarender R. Bogadhi

    (National Eye Institute)

  • Richard J. Krauzlis

    (National Eye Institute)

Abstract

The causal roles of the frontal eye fields (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) in spatial selective attention have not been directly compared. Reversible inactivation is an established method for testing causality but comparing results between FEF and SC is complicated by differences in size and morphology of the two brain regions. Here we exploited the fact that inactivation of FEF and SC also changes the metrics of saccadic eye movements, providing an independent benchmark for the strength of the causal manipulation. Using monkeys trained to covertly perform a visual motion-change detection task, we found that inactivation of either FEF or SC could cause deficits in attention task performance. However, SC-induced attention deficits were found with saccade changes half the size needed to get FEF-induced attention deficits. Thus, performance in visual attention tasks is vulnerable to loss of signals from either structure, but suppression of SC activity has a more devastating effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Anil Bollimunta & Amarender R. Bogadhi & Richard J. Krauzlis, 2018. "Comparing frontal eye field and superior colliculus contributions to covert spatial attention," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06042-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06042-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Clément Solié & Alessandro Contestabile & Pedro Espinosa & Stefano Musardo & Sebastiano Bariselli & Chieko Huber & Alan Carleton & Camilla Bellone, 2022. "Superior Colliculus to VTA pathway controls orienting response and influences social interaction in mice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.

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