Date of Award
2008
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program
Physiology
Supervisor
Dr. Stefan Everling
Second Advisor
Dr. Brian Comeil
Third Advisor
Dr. Jon Hore
Abstract
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been implicated in response suppression. This function is frequently investigated with the antisaccade task, which requires suppression of the automatic tendency to look toward a flashed peripheral stimulus (prosaccade) and generation of a voluntary saccade to the mirror location. To test the functional relationship between DLPFC activity and antisaccade performance, we applied electrical microstimulation to the DLPFC of two monkeys while they performed randomly interleaved pro- and anti-saccade trials. Microstimulation increased the number of direction errors and slowed saccadic reaction times (SRTs) on antisaccade trials when the visual stimulus is presented on the side contralateral to the stimulated hemisphere. Also, we observed shorter SRTs for contralateral prosaccades and longer SRTs for ipsilateral prosaccades on microstimulation trials. These findings do not support a role for the DLPFC in response suppression, but suggest a more general role in attentional selection of the contralateral field.
Recommended Citation
Wegener, Stephen Peter, "ELECTRICAL MICROSTIMULATION OF THE MONKEY DORSOLATERAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX IMPAIRS ANTISACCADE PERFORMANCE" (2008). Digitized Theses. 4200.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4200