Suppression of visually and memory-guided saccades induced by electrical stimulation of the monkey frontal eye field. I. Suppression of ipsilateral saccades.

When a saccade occurs to an interesting object, visual fixation holds its image on the fovea and suppresses saccades to other objects. Electrical stimulation of the frontal eye field (FEF) has been reported to elicit saccades, and recently also to suppress saccades. This study was performed to characterize properties of the suppression of visually guided (Vsacs) and memory-guided saccades (Msacs) induced by electrical stimulation of the FEF in trained monkeys. For any given stimulation site, we determined the threshold for electrically evoked saccades (Esacs) at < or =50 microA and then examined suppressive effects of stimulation at the same site on Vsacs and Msacs. FEF stimulation suppressed the initiation of both Vsacs and Msacs during and about 50 ms after stimulation at stimulus intensities lower than those for eliciting Esacs, but did not affect the vector of these saccades. Suppression occurred for ipsiversive but not contraversive saccades, and more strongly for saccades with larger amplitudes and those with initial eye positions shifted more in the saccadic direction. The most effective stimulation timing for suppression was about 50 ms before saccade onset, which suggests that suppression occurred in the efferent pathway for generating Vsacs at the premotor rather than the motoneuronal level, most probably in the superior colliculus and/or the paramedian pontine reticular formation. Suppression sites of ipsilateral saccades were distributed over the classical FEF where saccade-related movement neurons were observed. The results suggest that the FEF may play roles in not only generating contraversive saccades but also maintaining visual fixation by suppressing ipsiversive saccades.