QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (10) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Chou, I-h. Articles by Lisberger, S. G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Chou, I-h. Articles by Lisberger, S. G.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

The Journal of Neuroscience, June 1, 2002, 22(11):4728-4739

Spatial Generalization of Learning in Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements: Implications for the Coordinate Frame and Sites of Learning

I-han Chou and Stephen G. Lisberger

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, W. M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience, and Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0444

We have examined the underlying coordinate frame for pursuit learning by testing how broadly learning generalizes to different retinal loci and directions of target motion. Learned changes in pursuit were induced using double steps of target speed. Monkeys tracked a target that stepped obliquely away from the point of fixation, then moved smoothly either leftward or rightward. In each experimental session, we adapted the response to targets moving in one direction across one locus of the visual field by changing target speed during the initial catch-up saccade. Learning occurred in both presaccadic and postsaccadic eye velocity. The changes were specific to the adapted direction and did not generalize to the opposite direction of pursuit. To test the spatial scale of learning, we examined the responses to targets that moved across different parts of the visual field at the same velocity as the learning targets. Learning generalized partially to motion presented at untrained locations in the visual field, even those across the vertical meridian. Experiments with two sets of learning trials showed interference between learning at different sites in the visual field, suggesting that pursuit learning is not capable of spatial specificity. Our findings are consistent with the previous suggestions that pursuit learning is encoded in an intermediate representation that is neither strictly sensory nor strictly motor. Our data add the constraint that the site or sites of pursuit learning must process visual information on a fairly large spatial scale that extends across the horizontal and vertical meridians.

Key words: motor learning; frontal eye fields; arcuate pursuit area; sensory-motor interaction; MST; gain control

---

Copyright © 2002 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/02/22114728-12$05.00/0

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. L. Gardner, S. N. Tokiyama, and S. G. Lisberger A Population Decoding Framework for Motion Aftereffects on Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements J. Neurosci., October 13, 2004; 24(41): 9035 - 9048. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				I-h. Chou and S. G. Lisberger The Role of the Frontal Pursuit Area in Learning in Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements J. Neurosci., April 28, 2004; 24(17): 4124 - 4133. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. Madelain and R. J. Krauzlis Effects of Learning on Smooth Pursuit During Transient Disappearance of a Visual Target J Neurophysiol, August 1, 2003; 90(2): 972 - 982. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				W. Zhou, P. Weldon, B. Tang, and W. M. King Rapid Motor Learning in the Translational Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex J. Neurosci., May 15, 2003; 23(10): 4288 - 4298. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help