Pulvinar neuron responses to spontaneous and trained eye movements and to light flashes in squirrel monkeys

Single unit responses were recorded in the pulvinar nucleus of the squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) while awake and alert, with the head fixed but free to make eye movements. Peri-saccadic time histograms revealed only post-saccadic responses to eye movements made spontaneously in the dark or in a uniformly illuminated field (Ganzfeld), or to trained eye movements made in response to a spot of light in the periphery. Of 120 pulvinar neurons that responded to eye movements in the light, approximately one-quarter was responsive to eye movements in the dark. In one group of monkeys about half of the eye movement-responsive cells in the light were responsive to light flash in the dark; in another group approximately half of the eye movement-responsive cells in the light were also responsive to trained eye movements. Of particular interest is the fact that pulvinar neurons responsive to eye movements were located within a restricted region oriented vertically and cutting across lateral and inferior pulvinar, rostrally, and lateral and medial pulvinar, caudally. The results have been interpreted as supporting the concept of convergence and integration of visual and oculomotor input in the pulvinar and also its potential role in the mediation of visual attention.