Murphey Dona K, Maunsell John H R
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 May 20;105(20):7315-20. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0710820105. Epub 2008 May 13.
The frontal eye field (FEF) is involved in the transformation of visual signals into saccadic eye movements. Although it is often considered an oculomotor structure, several lines of evidence suggest that the FEF also contributes to visual perception and attention. To better understand the range of behaviors to which the FEF can contribute, we tested whether monkeys could detect activation of their FEF by electrical microstimulation with currents below those that cause eye movements. We found that stimulation of FEF neurons could almost always be detected at levels below those needed to generate saccades and that the electrical current needed for detection was highly correlated with that needed to generate a saccade. This relationship between detection and saccade thresholds can be explained if FEF neurons represent preparation to make particular saccades and subjects can be aware of such preparations without acting on them when the representation is not strong.
额叶眼区（FEF）参与将视觉信号转化为眼球跳动。尽管它常被视为一种动眼结构，但有几条证据表明，额叶眼区也有助于视觉感知和注意力。为了更好地理解额叶眼区可能参与的行为范围，我们测试了猴子能否通过低于引起眼球运动的电流进行电微刺激来检测其额叶眼区的激活。我们发现，刺激额叶眼区神经元几乎总能在低于产生扫视所需的水平被检测到，并且检测所需的电流与产生扫视所需的电流高度相关。如果额叶眼区神经元代表做出特定扫视的准备状态，并且当这种表征不强烈时，受试者能够意识到这种准备状态而不采取行动，那么检测阈值和扫视阈值之间的这种关系就可以得到解释。
