Supplementary eye field: influence of eye position on neural signals of fixation

SummarySingle units were recorded in the supplementary eye field of monkeys performing visual-oculomotor tasks. Two patterns of unit activity were observed while the animals fixated photic stimuli. One consisted of a step in tonic firing frequency (either an increase or a decrease, depending on the cell), lasting as long as fixation. The occurrence of this pattern did not require the continuous presence of a stimulus but the animal had to be provided with an incentive to fixate a given location. The other pattern was a monotonically varying firing rate dependent on the eye orientation along a particular axis, indicative of eye eccentricity in orbit.

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