The Role of Cortical Area MSTl in the Control of Tracking Eye Movements

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Stefan Glasauer, since 4/2017
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270641560

Area MST is part of the posterior parietal cortex and supposed to be involved in the control of optokinetic response (OKR) and smooth pursuit (SP) tracking eye movements. Our recent findings suggested that its dorsal subregion MSTd implements the visuomotor transformation from retinal to head-centered stimulus velocity signals for the control of OKR.The main goal of the envisaged project is to next analyze the ventrolateral subregion MSTl and its role in tracking eye movement control. Specifically, we will test the hypotheses that (1) MSTl implements an analogue coordinate transformation of the target velocity signal for SP control, and (2) that MSTl implements the dynamic gain control mechanism of SP. Further, we will analyze if neuronal behaviour argues for participation of MSTl in OKR control and revise the existing control system models of SP and OKR according to our findings. The proposed project is carried out in collaboration with the Washington National Primate Research Center in Seattle, USA, where the neuro-physiological experiments will be conducted. We will use our previously developed information-theoretic approach for characterizing neuronal tuning with high resolution and compare the experimental results with predictions from computational models.Altogether, we expect that this project will contribute to a better understanding of the OKR and SP control circuits, as well as the participation of the posterior parietal cortex in these eye movements. This is not a mere goal of basic research, but is also of great clinical importance, as both kind of tracking eye movements are affected by various neurological disorders.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Michael J. Mustari, Ph.D.
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Ulrich Büttner
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Lukas Brostek, until 4/2017