Auditory receptive fields in primate superior colliculus shift with changes in eye position.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Animal neurophysiology study (Level 5 by CEBM criteria)
PubMed 6727988 · doi:10.1038/309345a0
What was done
Head-fixed monkeys were trained to make delayed saccadic eye movements to auditory or visual targets presented from one of three initial fixation positions while extracellular single-unit activity was recorded in the superior colliculus.
What was found
No quantitative values, sample sizes, or test statistics are reported in the abstract. Qualitatively, auditory receptive fields of collicular neurons shifted systematically with changes in initial eye position, maintaining alignment between auditory and visual spatial maps.
Why it matters
This work demonstrates that primate superior colliculus neurons dynamically transform head-centered auditory inputs into eye-centered coordinates, providing a mechanism for multi-sensory alignment in motor planning.
Limits
The abstract reports neither the number of monkeys nor the number of recorded neurons. Findings from head-fixed laboratory conditions may not fully reflect coordinate transformations during unrestrained head-free gaze shifts.
Cited by
- supports The superior colliculus is responsive to both visual and auditory stimuli, and its auditory receptive fields shift depending on eye position.
- supports Auditory signals in the superior colliculus are modulated by eye position at the time a sound is presented.