title: Saccade direction encoding in the primate entorhinal cortex during visual exploration.
abstract: We recently demonstrated that position in visual space is represented by grid cells in the primate entorhinal cortex (EC), suggesting that visual exploration of complex scenes in primates may employ signaling mechanisms similar to those used during exploration of physical space via movement in rodents. Here, we describe a group of saccade direction (SD) cells that encode eye movement information in the monkey EC during free-viewing of complex images. Significant saccade direction encoding was found in 20% of the cells recorded in the posterior EC. SD cells were generally broadly tuned and two largely separate populations of SD cells encoded future and previous saccade direction. Some properties of these cells resemble those of head-direction cells in rodent EC, suggesting that the same neural circuitry may be capable of performing homologous spatial computations under different exploratory contexts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114; Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329; Laboratory for Neuroengineering, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30332;
authors.forename: Nathaniel J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4546-0516
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Killian
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Neuroengineering, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30332;
authors.forename: Steve M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.affiliation: Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329; Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322; Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195; Washington National Primate Research Center, Seattle, WA 09195 ebuffalo@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Buffalo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: grid cell; head direction; medial temporal lobe; spatial representation; vision