# Interaction of Visual and Oculomotor Signals in Cortex

> **NIH NIH R01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $383,338

## Abstract

A fundamental fact of vision is that our perception of the external world is shaped by a number of
behavioral and contextual factors. These factors include visual selective attention, in which sensory information
is filtered in favor of items that are behaviorally and contextually relevant. In addition, it includes the modulation
of visual processing during saccadic eye movements which occur several times each second. These factors are
known to modulate the processing of visual information and to contribute to adaptive visually guided behavior.
In the primate brain, the visual and oculomotor systems are highly interconnected, and past work has shown that
movement-related signals exert robust influences on visual processing in visual cortex. The current proposal
focuses on addressing key questions concerning the role of gaze control mechanisms in visual selection and
visual stability, two ways in which those mechanisms clearly influence visual perception and cognition. These
questions will be addressed using a broad set of innovative approaches and tools including newly developed,
large-scale, high-density Neuropixels (NP) probes made specifically for use in nonhuman primates. In this first
aim, we will test the role of persistent activity in the selection of visual signals and in visually guided saccades in
a set of key, complementary experiments that include large-scale neurophysiological recordings with primate NP
probes. Our hypothesis is that persistent activity in the frontal eye field (FEF) serves primarily to select the visual
information required to guide saccadic eye movements, and that this function is mediated by dopamine D1Rs.
In the second aim, we will address a major open question regarding the basis of stimulus-driven attention by
testing the contribution of posterior parietal cortex (PPC) to the representation of visual salience in the brain, and
to saliency-driven behavior. Experiments in this aim combine the use of reversible inactivation of PPC with large-
scale neurophysiological recordings and behavior. In the third aim, we will address another major open question
regarding the basis of the distortions in vision that occur during saccadic eye movements. We will leverage the
use of large-scale recordings, and the use of reversible parietal inactivation to test the role of PPC in perisaccadic
changes in visual processing within extrastriate visual cortex and the FEF. Overall, our focus on the influence of
gaze control mechanisms on visual processing, combined with our use of state-of-the-art neurophysiological
approaches and causal methods, are likely to produce results that exert a large and sustained impact on our
understanding of the neural mechanisms of visual perception and cognition.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10885018
- **Project number:** 5R01EY014924-19
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** TIRIN MOORE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $383,338
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2004-09-20 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10885018

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10885018, Interaction of Visual and Oculomotor Signals in Cortex (5R01EY014924-19). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10885018. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*