TY - JOUR T1 - Optimal Control of Saccades by Spatial-Temporal Activity Patterns in the Monkey Superior Colliculus A1 - Goossens, H. H. L. M. A1 - van Opstal, A. J. Y1 - 2012/05/17 N2 - Author Summary As the fovea is the only spot on the retina with high spatial resolution, primates need to move their eyes to peripheral targets for detailed inspection. Saccades are the fastest movements of the body, and theoretical studies suggest that their trajectories are optimized to bring the fovea as fast and accurately as possible on target. Speed-accuracy optimization principles explain the stereotyped nonlinear ‘main-sequence’ relationship between saccade amplitude, duration, and peak velocity. Earlier models attributed these kinematic properties to nonlinear neural circuitry in the brainstem but this creates problems for oblique saccades. Here, we demonstrate how the brainstem can be linear, and how instead the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) could optimize saccadic speed-accuracy tradeoff. Each saccade involves the recruitment of a large population of SC neurons. We show that peak firing-rate and burst shape of the recruited cells systematically vary with their location in the SC, and that burst shapes nicely match the eye-velocity profiles. This organization of burst properties fully explains the main-sequence. Moreover, all cells synchronize their bursts, thus maximizing the total instantaneous input to the brainstem, and ensuring that oblique saccades have straight trajectories. We thus discovered a sophisticated neural mechanism underlying optimal motor control in the brain. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 8 IS - 5 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002508 SP - e1002508 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002508 ER -