Ramp-to-threshold dynamics in a hindbrain population controls the timing of spontaneous saccades. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Organisms have the capacity to make decisions based solely on internal drives. However, it is unclear how neural circuits form decisions in the absence of sensory stimuli. Here we provide a comprehensive map of the activity patterns underlying the generation of saccades made in the absence of visual stimuli. We perform calcium imaging in the larval zebrafish to discover a range of responses surrounding spontaneous saccades, from cells that display tonic discharge only during fixations to neurons whose activity rises in advance of saccades by multiple seconds. When we lesion cells in these populations we find that ablation of neurons with pre-saccadic rise delays saccade initiation. We analyze spontaneous saccade initiation using a ramp-to-threshold model and are able to predict the times of upcoming saccades using pre-saccadic activity. These findings suggest that ramping of neuronal activity to a bound is a critical component of self-initiated saccadic movements.

publication date

  • July 6, 2021

Research

keywords

  • Population Control
  • Rhombencephalon
  • Saccades

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC8260785

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85109322988

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1364/OL.33.000156

PubMed ID

  • 34230474

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 12

issue

  • 1