Effects of training on saccadic eye movements elicited electrically from the frontal cortex of monkeys

It has been reported that training affects motor responses evoked electrically from the dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC). Once a monkey had been trained to generate visually-guided saccadic eye movements of a particular size and direction, electrical stimulation of the DMFC elicited saccades of only that size and direction [7]. The current study re-investigates this finding. Monkeys were trained to produce saccadic eye movements to a visual target. After training, electrical stimulation was delivered to the DMFC. It was found that stimulation of the DMFC always evoked saccadic eye movements of the same size and direction before and after training, such that training had little effect on the responses evoked electrically from the DMFC. Differences between the current results and previous results have disclosed new clues as to how the DMFC might be modulated by learning.