Tracking an Invisible Target Reveals Spatial Tuning of Neurons in the Rostral Superior Colliculus Is Not Dependent on Visual Stimuli

摘要

The superior colliculus (SC) plays an essential role in the sensory-motor mechanisms that underlie saccadic eye movements. The superficial layers of the SC receive visual information from the retina and striate cortex, and the intermediate and deep layers send outputs to motor centers in the brainstem that are responsible for driving saccades. Microstimula-tion and single-unit recordings have shown that neurons in the intermediate and deep layers of the SC form an orderly motor map where larger saccades are represented more caudally than smaller saccades (Robinson, 1972; Wurtz and Goldberg, 1972)#