Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Microsaccadic eye movements and firing of single cells in the striate cortex of macaque monkeys

Nature Neuroscience volume 3, pages 251–258 (2000)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 April 2000

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 April 2000

Abstract

When viewing a stationary object, we unconsciously make small, involuntary eye movements or ‘microsaccades’. If displacements of the retinal image are prevented, the image quickly fades from perception. To understand how microsaccades sustain perception, we studied their relationship to the firing of cells in primary visual cortex (V1). We tracked eye movements and recorded from V1 cells as macaque monkeys fixated. When an optimally oriented line was centered over a cell's receptive field, activity increased after microsaccades. Moreover, microsaccades were better correlated with bursts of spikes than with either single spikes or instantaneous firing rate. These findings may help explain maintenance of perception during normal visual fixation.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Responses of a cell located within the operculum of striate cortex to a white 8° circle.
Figure 2: Spikes and eye positions recorded during several two-second trials from two monkeys.
Figure 3: Correlation between microsaccades and spikes.
Figure 4: Instantaneous firing-rate analysis.
Figure 5: Burst analysis.
Figure 6: (a) Peak probability that a microsaccade occurred before bursts, as a function of burst size, for all latencies and ISIs.
Figure 7: Peak probability that a spike was preceded by a microsaccade for each cell.
Figure 8: Distribution of burst sizes yielding peak probabilities across the population of cells.
Figure 9: The main sequence analysis.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Editorial correction The printed version of this article contained an error introduced during editing. References 24-27 (below24,25,26,27) were omitted. We regret the error.

References

  1. Livingstone, M. S., Freeman, D. C. & Hubel, D. H. Visual responses in V1 of freely viewing monkeys . Cold Spring Harb. Symp. Quant. Biol. 61, 27–37 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Bair, W. & O'Keefe, L. P. The influence of fixational eye movements on the response of neurons in area MT of the macaque. Vis. Neurosci. 15, 779–786 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Leopold, D. A. & Logothetis, N. K. Microsaccades differentially modulate neural activity in the striate and extrastriate visual cortex. Exp. Brain Res. 123, 341–345 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bair, W., Koch, C., Newsome, W. & Britten, K. Power spectrum analysis of bursting cells in area MT in the behaving monkey. J. Neurosci. 14, 2870–2892 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Riggs, L. A. & Ratliff, F. The effects of counteracting the normal movements of the eye. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 42, 872–873 (1952).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ditchburn, R. W. & Ginsborg, B. L. Vision with a stabilized retinal image. Nature 170, 36–37 (1952).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hubel, D. Cortical unit responses to visual stimuli in non anesthetized cats. Am. J. Opthalmol. 46, 110–122 (1958).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hubel, D. H. & Wiesel, T. N. Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 148 , 574–591 (1959).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Coppola, D. & Purves, D. The extraordinarily rapid disappearance of entoptic images. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 8001–8004 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gur, M., Beylin, A. & Snodderly, D. M. Response variability of neurons in primary visual cortex (V1) of Alert Monkeys. J. Neurosci. 17, 2914–2920 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Dodge, R. Visual perception during eye-movements. Psychol. Rev. 7, 454–465 (1900).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Wurtz, R. H. Visual cortex neurons: response to stimuli during rapid eye movements. Science 162, 1148–1150 ( 1968).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wurtz, R. H. Comparison of effects of eye movements and stimulus movements on striate cortex neurons of the monkey. J. Neurophysiol. 32, 987–994 (1969).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Wurtz, R. H. Response of striate cortex neurons to stimuli during rapid eye movements in the monkey. J. Neurophysiol. 32, 975– 986 (1969).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Bridgeman, B., Hendry, D. & Stark, L. Failure to detect displacement of the visual world during saccadic eye movements. Vision Res. 15, 719–722 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Macknik, S. L., Fisher, B. D. & Bridgeman, B. Flicker distorts visual space constancy. Vision Res. 31, 2057–2064 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Gerrits, H. J. & Vendrik, A. J. The influence of stimulus movements on perception in parafoveal stabilized vision. Vision Res. 14, 175–180 (1974).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Sansbury, R. V., Skavenski, A. A., Haddad, G. M. & Steinman, R. M. Normal fixation of eccentric targets. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 63, 612–614 (1973).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Steinman, R. M., Haddad, G. M., Skavenski, A. A. & Wyman, D. Miniature eye movement. Science 181, 810 –819 (1973).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Day, E. C. Photoelectric currents in the eye of the fish. Am. J. Physiol. 38, 369–398 ( 1915).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Magleby, K. L. in Synaptic Function (eds. Edelman, G. M., Gall, W. E. & Cowan, W. M.) 21–56 (Wiley, New York, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Zucker, R. S. Short-term synaptic plasticity Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 12, 13–31 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Usrey, W. M., Reppas, J. B. & Reid, R. C. Paired-spike interactions and synaptic efficacy of retinal inputs to the thalamus. Nature 395, 384–387 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Albrecht, D. G., & Hamilton, D. B. Striate cortex of monkey and cat: contrast response function. J. Neurophysiol. 48, 217–237 ( 1982).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Albrecht, D. G., Visual cortex neurons in monkey and cat: effect of contrast on the spatial and temporal phase transfer functions.. Vis. Neurosci. 12, 1191–1210 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Gawne, T. J., Kjaer, T. W. & Richmond, B. J. . Latency: another potential code for feature binding in striate cortex.. J. Neurophysiol. 76, 1356–1360 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Judge, S. J., Chu, F. C. & Reid, R. C. . Implantation of magnetic search coils for measurement of eye position: an improved method. Vision Res. 20 , 535–538 (1980).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Gail Robertson, David Freeman, Michael Lafratta and Frederic Russo for technical assistance and Margaret Livingstone, Clay Reid, Richard Born and Max Snodderly for reading the manuscript and making comments. We also thank Murray Sherman, Jonathan Victor, John Maunsell and Guy Orban for their advice on the analysis and design of the project. This work was supported by research (to D.H.H.) and training grants (to S.L.M.) from the National Eye Institute. S.M.-C. is a fellow from the MEC-FPI program (Spain).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 220 Longwood Avenue, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Susana Martinez-Conde, Stephen L. Macknik & David H. Hubel

Authors
  1. Susana Martinez-Conde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stephen L. Macknik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. David H. Hubel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susana Martinez-Conde.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Martinez-Conde, S., Macknik, S. & Hubel, D. Microsaccadic eye movements and firing of single cells in the striate cortex of macaque monkeys. Nat Neurosci 3, 251–258 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/72961

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/72961

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing
pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy