Visuomotor Integration

Abstract

The term “visuomotor integration” refers to the computations preformed by the brain that underlie the visual control of movements. Over the past 40 years, neurophysiological studies performed in alert animals have provided considerable insight into the actual mechanisms responsible for visuomotor integration. In particular, to date, we have a particularly refined understanding of the neural control and pathways that govern eye movements. Notably, pioneering studies have provided key insights regarding how the activities of small clusters of neurons effectively shape the motor commands required to produce accurate eye movement. As a result, our understanding of the brainstem mechanisms that underlie the premotor and motor control of eye movements is now remarkably precise. In turn, this strong foundation has proven to be an advantage for neuroscientists in search of improving our understanding of the neural encoding of higher-level processes that link sensation and action, such as attention, perception, and decision-making. As a result, investigators have most recently taken on fundamental questions such as: (1) How does the brain accumulate information to arrive at the decision to make an eye movement? (2) How does the brain strike a balance between optimizing behavioral accuracy and currently available rewards when making eye movements? and (3) What is the linkage between the specific deficits observed in patients and deficits in the underlying neural circuits that control eye movements?