title: Eye position-dependent activity in the primary visual area as revealed by fMRI.
abstract: Internal senses of the position of the eye in the orbit may influence the cognitive processes that take into account gaze and limb positioning for movement or guiding actions. Neuroimaging studies have revealed eye position-dependent activity in the extrastriate visual, parietal, and frontal areas, but, at the earliest vision stage, the role of the primary visual area (V1) in these processes remains unclear. Functional MRI (fMRI) was used to investigate the effect of eye position on V1 activity evoked by a quarter-field stimulation using a visual checkerboard. We showed that the amplitude of V1 activity was modulated by the position of the eye, the activity being maximal when both the eye and head positions were aligned. Previous studies gave impetus to the emerging view that V1 activity is a cortical area in which contextual influences take place. The present study suggests that eye position may affect an early stage of visual processing.
authors.affiliation: Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle (GIN), UMR6194, CNRS, CEA, Université Paris 5, GIP CYCERON, Caen, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joliot
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perchey
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen