Local control mechanisms in gaze shifts

The authors explore the possibility that some of the dynamic properties of the neural activity in the gaze motor map (located in the intermediate layers of the superior colliculus) might be mediated by local interactions between movement-related neurons and fixation neurons. The authors modeled the collicular motor map as a dynamical system realized with a recurrent neural network, and the dynamics of the neural activity in the map as the transients of that system towards an equilibrium configuration that the network learned with a recurrent learning algorithm (recurrent backpropagation). The results of the learning point out the possibility that the dynamics of the burst-neuron layer of the superior colliculus might be locally regulated rather than feedback-driven as generally assumed, and the action of the feedback confined to the layer of the buildup neurons