Eye position effects in macaque area V4

Abstract

Recent studies revealed an influence of eye position on neuronal discharges in many dorsal stream areas of the macaque visual cortical system. This eye position information is thought to serve an implicit non-retinocentric representation of visual spatial information. The question arises of whether the two visual cortical pathways encode information in a common coordinate system, i.e. whether eye position effects exist also in ventral stream areas. We recorded 112 neurons from area V4 of two awake monkeys. Of these, 55 (49%) showed eye position effects. Like in dorsal stream areas, this modulatory influence was balanced out at the population level. Our data support the view of eye position effects as a general phenomenon in the macaque visual cortical system.