The Neural Control of Visually Guided Eye Movements
C. Cortical Mechanisms of Visually Guided Saccadic Eye Movements


The effects of one pharmacological agent is described here when applied to area V1 and to the frontal eye fields (FEF). The agent is bicuculline which is a GABA antagonist. In other words its administration releases the area from GABAergic inhibition.

effects of bicuculline injection on target selection

Figure 25 shows the effects of bicuculline injection into areas V1 and FEF. Opposite effects were found in these two areas. In V1 administration of bicuculline causes a major interference in the selection of the target placed into the receptive field of the neurons affected. By contrast, administration of bicuculline into the FEF produced dramatic facilitation. This effect is similar to that reported previously in the superior colliculus by Hikosaka and Wurtz (J Neurophysiol 1985; 53(1): 266-91).

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