# Visual Target Selection for Saccadic Eye Movements

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2020 · $589,972

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
A major open - and very important - question in cognitive neuroscience is: how and where in the brain are
decisions made? Recent electrophysiological evidence from a cerebral cortical area thought to play a key role
in perceptual decision-making (LIP) suggests that the activity of neurons in area LIP do not reflect a gradual
accumulation of evidence toward a decision. Furthermore, reversible inactivation of area LIP produces no
change in decision-making performance, calling into question its causal role in visual perceptual decision-
making. These unexpected results open the possibility that other sensorimotor areas play a critical role in the
neuronal processing leading to perceptual decisions. Our goal is to expand on these recent findings and on our
accomplishments made during previous award cycles to test the hypothesis that the basal ganglia (BG) and the
superior colliculus (SC) play key roles in visual perceptual decision-making. We have two specific aims: 1)
Determine the role of the superior colliculus (SC) in perceptual decision-making and, 2) determine the role of the
inhibition from one output nucleus of the basal ganglia, the substantia nigra pars reticulata (nigra), to the SC in
perceptual decision-making. We propose to use state of the art multiple neuron recording technologies to
measure population activity in the SC and in the nigra while subjects perform visual perceptual decision tasks.
We will employ analytical methods to model the behavioral data and make predictions about behavior using the
population neuronal data. We will also employ cutting edge molecular genetic methods to manipulate neuronal
activity to determine the causal role of these brain areas in perceptual decision-making.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9902451
- **Project number:** 5R01EY013692-16
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Michele A Basso
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $589,972
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2002-08-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9902451

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9902451, Visual Target Selection for Saccadic Eye Movements (5R01EY013692-16). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9902451. Licensed CC0.

---

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