title: A Causal Role for the Cortical Frontal Eye Fields in Microsaccade Deployment.
abstract: Microsaccades aid vision by helping to strategically sample visual scenes. Despite the importance of these small eye movements, no cortical area has ever been implicated in their generation. Here, we used unilateral and bilateral reversible inactivation of the frontal eye fields (FEF) to identify a cortical drive for microsaccades. Unexpectedly, FEF inactivation altered microsaccade metrics and kinematics. Such inactivation also impaired microsaccade deployment following peripheral cue onset, regardless of cue side or inactivation configuration. Our results demonstrate that the FEF provides critical top-down drive for microsaccade generation, particularly during the recovery of microsaccades after disruption by sensory transients. Our results constitute the first direct evidence, to our knowledge, for the contribution of any cortical area to microsaccade generation, and they provide a possible substrate for how cognitive processes can influence the strategic deployment of microsaccades.
authors: The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.|Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Tyler R
authors: 0000-0001-7653-0292
authors: TR
authors: Peel
authors: Physiology of Active Vision Laboratory, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen University, Tuebingen, Germany.
authors: Ziad M
authors: 0000-0001-9968-119X
authors: ZM
authors: Hafed
authors: The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Suryadeep
authors: S
authors: Dash
authors: The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Stephen G
authors: SG
authors: Lomber
authors: The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.|Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.|Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Brian D
authors: 0000-0002-4702-7089
authors: BD
authors: Corneil
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003463:Cues; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology