# Neural Control of Eye Movement

> **NIH NIH R01** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $515,112

## Abstract

Sensory and motor cortices cooperate to provide the visual guidance of movement by processing visual
inputs and providing voluntary modulation of how strongly those inputs reach sub-cortical motor circuits. The
present proposal uses smooth pursuit eye movements to ask how visual and motor cortex interact to produce
smooth pursuit eye movements. First, it will study the neural basis for “gain-control”. In pursuit, the smooth
eye movement region of the frontal eye fields (FEFSEM) modulates the strength of visual-drive for pursuit.
Recordings from sensory area MT, motor area FEFSEM, and their brainstem targets will ask how gain control
is represented a) when a target is perturbed during pursuit or fixation and b) for high-contrast and low-
contrast visual stimuli, which produce high and low gains in the initiation of pursuit. Second, the research will
evaluate the neural basis for pursuit latency. It will expand on preliminary data showing a trial-by-trial
relationship between neural and pursuit latency in MT. It will ask whether latency or response amplitude in
FEFSEM is better related to pursuit latency. It also will record from multiple single neurons in both structures to
document how strongly the latencies are correlated across the population. Third, the proposed research will
record simultaneously from multiple single neurons in MT and FEFSEM to determine the nature of the
functional connectivity between the two areas, and to provide data that constrain how signals are
transformed as they move from sensory to motor areas of the cortex. Integrated computational analyses will
inform the experimental approaches by answering key questions such as: 1) how is the output from area MT
used simultaneously to estimate the speed and direction of target motion and to determine how strongly the
motor system should weight sensory evidence; 2) what is the functional connectivity among MT, FEFSEM, and
the downstream motor system, and how can the system account for the mean, variation, and correlations
among neural and behavioral responses; 3) How do MT and FEFSEM interact to control pursuit latency. The
proposed research will make large steps towards understanding how multiple sites within the circuit for
pursuit eye movements coordinate visual guidance of movement.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9934204
- **Project number:** 5R01EY027373-04
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** STEPHEN G LISBERGER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $515,112
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9934204

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9934204, Neural Control of Eye Movement (5R01EY027373-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9934204. Licensed CC0.

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