Frontal eye fields in macaque monkeys: prefrontal and premotor contributions to visually guided saccades

Neuronal spiking was sampled from the frontal eye field (FEF) and from the rostral part of area 6 that reaches to the superior limb of the arcuate sulcus, dorsal to the arcuate spur when present (F2vr) in macaque monkeys performing memory-guided saccades and visually guided saccades for visual search. Neuronal spiking modulation in F2vr resembled that in FEF in many but not all respects. A new consensus clustering algorithm of neuronal modulation patterns revealed that F2vr and FEF contain a greater variety of modulation patterns than previously reported. The areas differ in the proportions of visuomotor neuron types, the proportions of neurons discriminating a target from distractors during visual search, and the consistency of modulation patterns across tasks. However, between F2vr and FEF we found no difference in the magnitude of delay period activity, the timing of the peak discharge rate relative to saccades, or the time of search target selection. The observed similarities and differences between the 2 cortical regions contribute to other work establishing the organization of eye fields in the frontal lobe and may help explain why FEF in monkeys is identified within granular prefrontal area 8 but in humans is identified within agranular premotor area 6.