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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Alexander Thiele
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The cortical projection to the subcortical pathway underlying the optokinetic reflex was studied using antidromic electrical stimulation in the midbrain structures nucleus of the optic tract and dorsal terminal nucleus of the accessory optic system (NOT-DTN) while simultaneously recording from cortical neurons in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) of macaque monkeys. Projection neurons were found in all subregions of the middle temporal area (MT) as well as in the medial superior temporal area (MST). Antidromic latencies ranged from 0.9 to 6 ms with a median of 1.8 ms. There was a strong bias in the population of cortical neurons projecting to the NOT-DTN for ipsiversive stimulus movement (towards the recording side), whereas in the population of cortical neurons not projecting to the NOT-DTN a more or less equal distribution of stimulus directions was evident. Our data indicate that there is no special area in the posterior STS coding for ipsiversive horizontal stimulus movement. Instead, a specific selection of cortical neurons from areas MT and MST forms the projection to the NOT-DTN and as a subpopulation has the same directional bias as their subcortical target neurons. These findings are discussed in relation to the functional grouping of cortical output as an organizational principle for specific motor responses.
Author(s): Thiele A; Hoffmann KP; Bremmer F; Distler C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Neurophysiology
Year: 2002
Volume: 87
Issue: 4
Pages: 2113-2123
ISSN (print): 0022-3077
ISSN (electronic): 1522-1598
Publisher: American Physiological Society
URL: http://jn.physiology.org/content/87/4/2113.full
