Bridging the gap between monkey and man: Macaque event-related potentials reveal similarities to human indices of visual attention

Abstract

Nearly a half-century's worth of research has established the existence of a number of human event-related potential (ERP) components that measure a host of different operation during visual cognition. Surprisingly, almost nothing is known about whether nonhuman primates exhibit such electrophysiological signatures of cognition. We report findings from a new technique for recording ERPs from macaque monkeys. During visual search monkeys exhibit ERP components corresponding to those described in human studies. These include several early visual components sensitive to sensory processing demands and attention-directing lateralizations similar to the human N2pc. These findings serve to bridge the gap between the disparate literatures using electrophysiological measurements to study visual processing in the brains of humans and nonhuman primates.

Footnotes

 We thank NEI (for F32-EY015043 to GFW) and Vanderbilt University for a Discovery Research Grant to AFR and GFW. This research was also supported by by Robin and Richard Patton and grants RO1-EY08890, P30-EY08126, P30-HD015052 to JDS.