Selection of objects by the primate oculomotor system
A collaborative project with Munoz, McMullen and Trappenberg
Our long term objective is to achieve a better understanding of higher-level,
cognitive influences (e.g. object representations defining "targets"
for the oculomotor system, preparation, attention and voluntary control)
upon the reflexive machinery in the superior colliculus and brain stem responsible
for overt orienting in the form of saccadic
eye movements.
The collaboration, which embodies the interdisciplinary approach of cognitive
neuroscience, involves
- experimental psychology (e.g., chronometric, psychophysical analyses
of oculomotor behavior in man and rhesus monkey),
- behavioral neuroscience (e.g., single unit recording during, and the
effects of reversible chemical lesions upon, oculomotor performance of
rhesus monkeys),
- computer science (development of an artificial neural network model
that will be built upon existing models of the subcortical oculomotor system,
faithful to our knowledge of the underlying neuroscience, able to simulate
a wide range of oculomotor phenomena and able to serve as a platform to
which can be added modules associated with object representations, covert
orienting and voluntary control), and
- cognitive neuropsychology (performance breakdowns following damage
to the real or artificial neural substrate).