PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Zhiguo Wang
AU  - Benchi Wang
AU  - Matthew Finkbeiner
TI  - Asymmetrical representation of the upper and lower visual fields in oculomotor maps
AID  - 10.1101/086397
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 086397
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/08/086397.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/11/08/086397.full
AB  - The striate area devoted to the lower visual field (LVF) is larger than that devoted to the upper visual field (UVF). A similar anatomical asymmetry also exists in the LGN. Here we take advantage of two experimental tasks that are known to modulate the direction and amplitude of saccades to demonstrate a visual field asymmetry in oculomotor maps. Participants made visually guided saccades. In Experiment 1, the saccade target was accompanied by a visual distractor. The distractor’s presence modulated the direction of saccades, and this effect was much stronger for LVF targets. In Experiment 2, the temporal gap between the offset of the fixation stimulus and the onset of the saccade target was manipulated. This manipulation modulated the amplitude of saccades and this modulation was stronger for saccades towards UVF targets. Taken together, these results suggest that the representation of both meridians and eccentricities in the LVF is compressed in oculomotor maps.