Abstract
The frontal eye field (FEF) signals the location of the target of visual search by increasing activity when the target, relative to a distractor, is inside neuronal receptive fields (RF). Here, we studied the role of FEF associated with errors of target selection during visual search by recording neuronal activity in two monkeys performing visual search for T (or L) among Ls (or Ts) in which they were required to make a single saccade to the target. When monkeys made saccades to distractors (typically followed by corrective saccades to the target), one population of neurons increased activity when the distractor, relative to the target, was inside their RF, replicating previous work (Thompson KG, Bichot NP, Sato TR (2005) Frontal eye field activity before visual search errors reveals the integration of bottom-up and top-down salience. J Neurophysiol 93, 337–351). A second population of neurons, all with visual- and movement-related activity, exhibited higher distractor-related activity early in error trials, but showed higher target-related activity later in error trials. A third population of neurons exhibited higher activity for the target than for distractors during correct and error trials. These results replicate and extend the findings of Thompson et al. (2005) and demonstrate a diversity of target selection processes in FEF.
Supported by NEI R01-EY08890, P30-EY08126 and Ingram Chair of Neuroscience.