Introducing Students to Subcortical Sensory, Motor, and Cognitive Processes Associated with Saccades using a Series of Papers by Goldberg and Wurtz.

The ability to acquire, observe, and analyze neuronal activity in conjunction with behavior in awake, behaving organisms was a great leap forward for the field of neuroscience in the 20th century. While some of the early experiments are relayed in introductory textbooks, rarely are undergraduate students introduced to tractable primary literature that illustrates the genesis of modern techniques, includes raw data that are immediately interpretable based on their basic knowledge of cellular neuroscience and their own experience, and reinforces and/or question basic concepts in neuroscience. This classic paper review introduces four papers published in 1972 by Robert Wurtz and Michael Goldberg focusing on eye movement behavior and superior colliculus physiology that fit these criteria. Taken together these papers introduce students to fundamental concepts (e.g., receptive and movement fields) in the field of behavioral neuroscience by introducing students to visual, motor, and attentional processing using single unit neuronal recordings and lesion studies. I have attempted to provide the basic introductory information for faculty who wish to use these papers for in-class discussions in their introductory or upper level neuroscience courses.