Multiple brain regions cooperate in sequential saccade generation

We model control of voluntary saccades to visual and remembered targets in terms of interactions between the basal ganglia (caudate and substantia nigra), superior colliculus, mediodorsal thalamus, posterior parietal cortex, frontal eye fields and the saccade generator of the brainstem. These interactions include modulation of topographic inhibitory masks that manage motor field activity, dynamic remapping of sensory maps onto the eye motor map to take account of eye movements, and sustained neural activity that embodies spatial memory. Models of these mechanisms implemented in NSL (our Neural Simulation Language) simulate behavior and neural activity described in the literature, and suggest new experiments.