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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 23, 2008, 28(17):4298-4310; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5678-07.2008

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Neuronal Bases of Directional Expectation and Anticipatory Pursuit

Coralie de Hemptinne,¹ Philippe Lefèvre,^1,2 and Marcus Missal^1,2

¹Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie and ²Centre d'ingénierie des systèmes d'automatique et de mécanique appliquée, Université catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium

Correspondence should be addressed to Prof. Marcus Missal, Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie, Université catholique de Louvain, Avenue Hippocrate 54 49, 1200 Brussels, Belgium. Email: Marcus.Missal{at}uclouvain.be

Expectation of upcoming events is an essential cognitive function on which anticipatory actions are based. The neuronal basis of this prospective representation is poorly understood. We trained rhesus monkeys in a smooth-pursuit task in which the direction of upcoming target motion was indicated using a color cue. Under these conditions, directional expectation frequently evoked anticipatory smooth movements. We found that the activity of a population of neurons in the supplementary eye fields encoded the expected future direction of the target. Neuronal activity increased after presentation of the cue, indicating future target motion in the preferred direction. Neuronal activity either remained unaltered or was reduced if the antipreferred direction was cued. In addition, 30% of these neurons were more active during trials with anticipatory pursuit in the preferred direction than during trials when monkeys did not anticipate target motion onset. This subset of recorded neurons encoded the direction of the subsequent anticipatory pursuit. We hypothesize that the neural representation of directional expectation could be conceptualized as a competitive interaction between pools of neurons representing likely future events, with the winner of this competition determining the direction of the subsequent anticipatory movement. Similar mechanisms could drive prediction before movement initiation in other motor domains.

Key words: eye movement; anticipatory smooth pursuit; cortex; rhesus monkey; supplementary eye fields; single neuron recordings

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Received Dec. 21, 2007; revised March 5, 2008; accepted March 16, 2008.

Correspondence should be addressed to Prof. Marcus Missal, Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie, Université catholique de Louvain, Avenue Hippocrate 54 49, 1200 Brussels, Belgium. Email: Marcus.Missal{at}uclouvain.be

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				G. R. Barnes and C.J.S. Collins Evidence for a Link Between the Extra-Retinal Component of Random-Onset Pursuit and the Anticipatory Pursuit of Predictable Object Motion J Neurophysiol, August 1, 2008; 100(2): 1135 - 1146. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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