Biomedical subjects

Shabtai Barash

Publications and source records attributed to Shabtai Barash.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Switching of sensorimotor transformations: antisaccades and parietal cortex.

The sensorimotor processing necessary in complex realistic situations goes beyond straight-forward application of a given sensorimotor transformation. Contextual information may make it necessary to switch to another sensorimotor transformation. We studied the issue of switching by using the mixed memory prosaccade/antisaccade task. Neurons of the lateral intra-parietal area (LIP) might be involved in computing the sensorimotor transformations for both prosaccades and antisaccades. LIP neurons may also be involved in switching to the antisaccade sensorimotor transformation, when an antisaccade is requested. Some neurons in LIP show a paradoxical pattern of activity-motor in space but visual in time. Funahashi, Chafee and Goldman-Rakic reported in 1993 a complimentary pattern of activity in prefrontal cortex-visual in space but motor in time. These odd observations are explained by the hypothesis that (1) the parietal cortex contains a sensorimotor transformation module, and prefrontal cortex a context categorization module, and (2) following target onset, information flows from early visual system to parietal cortex and on to prefrontal cortex; then, a second wave of activation, contingent on a switching signal, arrives back at parietal cortex. The duration of this loop is less than 100 ms. Thus, the paradoxical activities are intermediate representations derived in the cognitive processing involved in switching sensorimotor transformations.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Single-neuron evidence for a contribution of the dorsal pontine nuclei to both types of target-directed eye movements, saccades and smooth-pursuit.

The primate dorsolateral pontine nucleus (DLPN) is a key link in a cerebro-cerebellar pathway for smooth pursuit eye movements, a pathway assumed to be anatomically segregated from tegmental circuits subserving saccades. However, the existence of afferents from several cerebrocortical and subcortical centres for saccades suggests that the DLPN and neighbouring parts of the dorsal pontine nuclei (DPN) might contribute to saccades as well. In order to test this hypothesis, we recorded from the DPN of two monkeys trained to perform smooth pursuit eye movements as well as visually and memory-guided saccades. Out of 281 neurons isolated from the DPN, 138 were responsive in oculomotor tasks. Forty-five were exclusively activated in saccade paradigms, 68 exclusively by smooth pursuit and 25 neurons showed responses in both. Pursuit-related responses reflected sensitivity to eye position, velocity or combinations of velocity and position with minor contributions of acceleration in many cases. When tested in the memory-guided saccades paradigm, 65 out of 70 neurons activated in saccade paradigms showed significant saccade-related bursts and 20 significant activity in the memory period. Our finding of saccade-related activity in the DPN in conjunction with the existence of strong anatomical input from saccade-related cerebrocortical areas suggests that the DPN serves as a precerebellar relay for both pursuit and saccade-related information originating from cerebral cortex, in addition to the classical tecto-tegmental circuitry for saccades.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2003

Persistent LIP activity in memory antisaccades: working memory for a sensorimotor transformation.

The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) contains neurons that are active during the memory interval of memory saccades. We call these "persistent neurons." Here we study the activity of the persistent neurons in memory antisaccades, "motor" (the saccade is made toward the response field, although the response field is not stimulated visually) and "visual" (the response field is stimulated visually, but the movement is away from the field). Most persistent neurons are active during parts of the memory intervals of both visual and motor memory-antisaccades. Typically, these parts significantly overlap each other and together span the entire memory interval. The amplitude of the activity changes systematically during the memory intervals of visual and motor memory antisaccades. These changes are reflected in an antisaccade differential activity, which turns first to the visual direction and then crosses over to the motor direction. Some persistent neurons appear to show the paradoxical activity previously characterized in visual neurons; paradoxical activity accelerates the transition of the neuron's activity from visual to motor. These observations suggest that the persistent neurons reflect working memory for the computation of the antisaccade sensorimotor transformation. Ensembles of persistent neurons with different response fields may make up modules of working memory.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Paradoxical activities: insight into the relationship of parietal and prefrontal cortices.

What are the functions of the parietal and prefrontal cortices and how do these regions interact to achieve their objectives? How does context change plans for action? Are 'visual' and 'motor' well-defined attributes of neuronal activity in the association cortex? Recent studies of the saccadic system in monkeys have revealed two sets of paradoxical data: in parietal cortex, activity has visual timing but motor direction; in prefrontal cortex, activity has motor timing but visual direction. Analyzing the prefrontal and parietal data together leads to surprising insights. It appears that these paradoxical activities are intermediates in a parietal-prefrontal-parietal loop that has a rapid turnaround, and that a possibly prefrontal context-contingent signal switches sensorimotor transformations in parietal cortex.

Animals↗