Overt responses during covert orienting

Brian D Corneil; Douglas P Munoz

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.040

Overt responses during covert orienting

Neuron. 2014 Jun 18;82(6):1230-43. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.040.

Authors

Brian D Corneil¹, Douglas P Munoz²

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Physiology & Pharmacology, Psychology, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada. Electronic address: bcorneil@uwo.ca.
² Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Departments of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Psychology, Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.

PMID: 24945769
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.040

Abstract

A distributed network of cortical and subcortical brain areas controls our oculomotor behavior. This network includes the superior colliculus (SC), which coordinates an ancient visual grasp reflex via outputs that ramify widely within the brainstem and spinal cord, accessing saccadic and other premotor and autonomic circuits. In this Review, we discuss recent results correlating subliminal SC activity in the absence of saccades with diverse components of the visual grasp reflex, including neck and limb muscle recruitment, pupil dilation, and microsaccade propensity. Such subtle manifestations of covert orienting are accessible in the motor periphery and may provide the next generation of oculomotor biomarkers in health and disease.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Humans
Nerve Net / physiology*
Orientation / physiology*
Photic Stimulation / methods
Saccades / physiology*
Superior Colliculi / physiology
Visual Cortex / physiology
Visual Pathways / physiology*

Grants and funding

Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada