Optogenetic disruption of memory-drive, oculomotor behavior in the non-human primate
Name
904048676-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
18.17 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c370a54edcc15ae86f74caf53453b708
Author(s)
Acker, Leah C. (Leah Christine)
Advisor(s)
Robert Desimone and Ed Boyden.
Date Issued
2014
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Pharmacological inactivation studies have shown that the frontal eye field (FEF) is critical for executing saccades to remembered locations. FEF neurons increase their firing rate during the three epochs of the memory-guided saccade task: visual stimulus presentation, the delay interval, and motor preparation. It is unclear, though, whether FEF activity during each epoch is necessary for memory-guided saccade execution. To address this question, techniques for millisecond-precise optical inactivation of the primate brain were invented. A red-shifted halorhodopsin (Jaws) and a novel large-volume tissue illuminator were used in two rhesus macaques to inactivate part of the FEF at different times during the memory-guided saccade task. Neuronal recordings showed that the inactivated tissue volume (i.e., the volume where the firing rate of >80% of neurons decreased by >80%) spanned several cubic millimeters, which is consistent with histological findings. When the target was in the inactivated receptive field, error rates (i.e., failures to execute memory-guided saccades to the proper target location) increased in both monkeys with inactivation during either the target, delay, or motor period. This implies that FEF neuronal activity contributes to performance throughout the memory-guided saccade task.
Description
Thesis: Ph. D., Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, 2014.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 130-139).
Subjects
Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
MIT Department
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
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