Conference Program
 
Oculomotor System Biology
July 8-13, 2007
Bates College
Lewiston, ME
Chairs:
Neeraj Gandhi & Jennifer M. Groh

Vice Chairs:
Kathleen Cullen & Paul J. May

The oculomotor system is one of the oldest and most thoroughly studied motor control systems. Yet, it was only in 2005 that we held the first ever Gordon Research Conference entitled "Oculomotor System Biology". By popular demand from the attendees and approval of the Gordon Research Conference organization, we are now organizing a second iteration of this conference. The emphasis of the 2007 meeting will be upon emerging topics that span the breadth of issues in oculomotor system biology.

Contributors
Gordon Research Conferences
National Eye Institute (NIH)
Cambridge Research Systems, Ltd
Cell Press
Plexon Inc.
Applied Science Laboratories
SUNDAY
2:00 pm - 11:00 pmArrival and Check-in
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 7:40 pmWelcome / Introductory Comments by GRC Site Staff
7:40 pm - 9:30 pm KEYNOTE SESSION: THE OCULOMOTOR SYSTEM AND BEYOND
7:40 pm - 7:45 pm Discussion Leader: Robert H. Wurtz (National Institute of Health)
7:45 pm - 8:30 pmWilliam T. Newsome (Stanford University)
"The primate oculomotor system: a window onto value-based decision making"
8:30 pm - 8:35 pmDiscussion
8:35 pm - 9:20 pmAnn M. Graybiel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
"The eyes have it: action chunking and oculomotor control"
9:20 pm - 9:25 pmDiscussion
9:25 pm - 9:30 pm Overview Discussion
9:30 pm - 11:00 pmOpening Reception
MONDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm MOTOR PREPARATION
9:00 am - 9:05 am Discussion Leader: Neeraj J. Gandhi (University of Pittsburgh)
9:05 am - 9:35 amTirin Moore (Stanford University)
"Persistent activity in the frontal eye field during sustained attention"
9:35 am - 9:40 amDiscussion
9:40 am - 10:10 amBrian D. Corneil (University of Western Ontario)
"Neuromuscular correlates of oculomotor preparation"
10:10 am - 10:15 amDiscussion
10:15 amGroup Photo / Coffee Break
10:45 am - 11:15 amKirk G. Thompson (National Institute of Health)
"Dissociation of visual selection from saccade programming in the frontal eye field"
11:15 am - 11:20 amDiscussion
11:20 am - 11:50 amJacqueline P. Gottlieb (Columbia University)
"Salience maps as sites of attentional/motor integration"
11:50 am - 11:55 amDiscussion
11:55 am - 12:10 pmShort Talk: Jay A. Edelman (City College of New York)
"Express saccades revisited: using short-latency movements to probe the influence of preparatory processes on visuomotor processing"
12:10 pm - 12:30 pmOverview Discussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm EYE-HEAD COORDINATION
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm Discussion Leader: Laurent Goffart (CNRS, Marseille)
7:35 pm - 7:55 pmDaniel Guitton (McGill University)
"Spatio-temporal patterns of activity on the motor map of the superior colliculus during normal and perturbed head-unrestrained gaze shifts"
7:55 pm - 8:00 pmDiscussion
8:00 pm - 8:20 pmPaul J. May (University of Mississippi)
"Central mesencephalic reticular formation circuitry for feedforward and feedback control of gaze"
8:20 pm - 8:25 pmDiscussion
8:25 pm - 8:45 pmDavid M. Waitzman (University of Connecticut)
"The role of the mesencephalic reticular formation (MRF) in the control of head and eye movements"
8:45 pm - 8:50 pmDiscussion
8:50 pm - 9:10 pmKikuro Fukushima (Hokkaido University)
"Discharge of pursuit neurons in the caudal part of the frontal eye fields during head-free pursuit"
9:10 pm - 9:15 pmDiscussion
9:15 pm - 9:30 pmOverview Discussion
TUESDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm VISUOSPATIAL PROCESSING FOR SACCADIC EYE MOVEMENTS
9:00 am - 9:05 am Discussion Leader: Michael E. Goldberg (Columbia University)
9:05 am - 9:35 amRobert H. Wurtz (National Institute of Health)
"Comparison of the thalamic reticular nucleus and the lateral geniculate nucleus in an attention task"
9:35 am - 9:40 amDiscussion
9:40 am - 10:10 amDouglas P. Munoz (Queens University)
"Visuomotor transformations for guiding overt and covert orienting"
10:10 am - 10:15 amDiscussion
10:15 am - 10:45 amZiad M. Hafed (Salk Institute)
"Population coding of target position by the superior colliculus"
10:45 am - 10:50 amDiscussion
10:50 amCoffee Break
11:20 am - 11:50 amMarc A. Sommer (University of Pittsburgh)
"Influence of oculomotor corollary discharge on visual neurons in frontal eye field"
11:50 am - 11:55 amDiscussion
11:55 am - 12:10 pmShort Talk: Kristen Ford (University of Western Ontario)
"Neural circuitry underlying anti-saccade task performance in monkeys investigated with BOLD fMRI"
12:10 pm - 12:30 pmOverview Discussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm NEUROETHOLOGY - THE IMPACT OF NATURE’S EXPERIMENTS ON OCULOMOTOR SYSTEMS
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm Discussion Leader: Robert Baker (New York University)
7:35 pm - 7:55 pmSusan B. Udin (State University of New York, Buffalo)
"Very, very slow eye movements in Xenopus, and how the tectum copes"
7:55 pm - 8:00 pmDiscussion
8:00 pm - 8:20 pmJ. David Dickman (Washington University)
"Walk, run, or fly: different strategies for motion dependent gaze stabilization"
8:20 pm - 8:25 pmDiscussion
8:25 pm - 8:45 pmShiva R. Sinha (Indiana University)
"Vocal premotor activity in bat superior colliculus: functional analogies with visual accommodation"
8:45 pm - 8:50 pmDiscussion
8:50 pm - 9:10 pmJosh Wallman (City College of New York)
"The saccade may be an example of a Fixed Action Pattern, but one of extraordinary flexibility"
9:10 pm - 9:15 pmDiscussion
9:15 pm - 9:30 pmOverview Discussion
WEDNESDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm ACTION IN THE OCULOMOTOR PERIPHERY
9:00 am - 9:05 am Discussion Leader: Paul J. May (University of Mississippi)
9:05 am - 9:35 amFrancisco H. Andrade (University of Kentucky)
"The design of the extraocular muscles: what is left out of the small package?"
9:35 am - 9:40 amDiscussion
9:40 am - 10:10 amRoland Blumer (University of Vienna)
"Palisade endings in monkey extraocular muscles exhibit molecular characteristics of motor terminals"
10:10 am - 10:15 amDiscussion
10:15 am - 10:45 amAngel M. Pastor (University of Seville)
"Trophic dependencies in the oculomotor system"
10:45 am - 10:50 amDiscussion
10:50 amCoffee Break
11:20 am - 11:50 amMichael E. Goldberg (Columbia University)
"The representation of eye position in monkey cerebral cortex"
11:50 am - 11:55 amDiscussion
11:55 am - 12:10 pmShort Talk: Yoshiko Izawa (Tokyo Medical and Dental University)
"Neural pathways mediating excitation and inhibition from the superior colliculus to vertical ocular motoneurons"
12:10 pm - 12:30 pmOverview Discussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm HOT TOPICS
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm Discussion Leader: Jennifer M. Groh (Duke University)
7:35 pm - 7:55 pmDinesh K. Pai (University of British Columbia)
"Constructive models of oculomotor systems"
7:55 pm - 8:00 pmDiscussion
8:00 pm - 8:20 pmJacinta O’Shea (University of Oxford)
"Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies of frontal eye field function"
8:20 pm - 8:25 pmDiscussion
8:25 pm - 8:45 pmGopathy Purushothaman (Vanderbilt University)
"Correlated variability in neural population response and the fine discrimination of orientation and direction"
8:45 pm - 8:50 pmDiscussion
8:50 pm - 9:00 pmGeneral Discussion
9:00 pm - 9:30 pmBusiness Meeting
(Nominations for the next Vice Chair; Fill out Conference Evaluation Forms; Discuss future Site & Scheduling preferences; Election of the next Vice Chair)
THURSDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 am - 12:30 pm VESTIBULAR SYSTEM DYNAMICS: FROM CELLS TO CIRCUITS
9:00 am - 9:05 amDiscussion Leader: Kathleen E. Cullen (McGill University)
9:05 am - 9:35 amGay R. Holstein (Mount Sinai School of Medicine)
"Neurotransmitters and modulators involved in central vestibulo-autonomic control"
9:35 am - 9:40 amDiscussion
9:40 am - 10:10 amPierre-Paul Vidal (CNRS, Paris)
"In vivo-in vitro approach, the bridge may be not too far after all..."
10:10 am - 10:15 amDiscussion
10:15 am - 10:45 amJennifer L. Raymond (Stanford University)
"Adaptive timing of eye movements"
10:45 am - 10:50 amDiscussion
10:50 amCoffee Break
11:20 am - 11:50 amRobert Baker (New York University)
"A biological approach to the study of the neural basis for oculomotor integration"
11:50 am - 11:55 amDiscussion
11:55 pm - 12:10 pmShort talk: Jeremy B. Wilmer (University of Pennsylvania)
"Two distinct visual motion mechanisms for smooth pursuit: evidence from individual differences"
12:10 pm - 12:30 pmOverview Discussion
12:30 pmLunch
1:30 pm - 4:00 pmFree Time
4:00 pm - 6:00 pmPoster Session
6:00 pmDinner
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm PREDICTIVE EYE MOVEMENTS
7:30 pm - 7:35 pm Discussion Leader: Richard J. Krauzlis (Salk Institute)
7:35 pm - 7:55 pmStephen J. Heinen (Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute)
"Neuronal prediction for an oculomotor decision"
7:55 pm - 8:00 pmDiscussion
8:00 pm - 8:20 pmGraham R. Barnes (University of Manchaster)
"Evidence for a common, sampled-data mechanism controlling anticipatory pursuit and the internal drive component of sustained pursuit"
8:20 pm - 8:25 pmDiscussion
8:25 pm - 8:45 pmGillian A. O’Driscoll (McGill University)
"Predictive control of eye movements in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder"
8:45 pm - 8:50 pmDiscussion
8:50 pm - 9:10 pmMark J. Shelhamer (Johns Hopkins University)
"Sequences of predictive saccades: statistics, self-organization, neural clocks"
9:10 pm - 9:15 pmDiscussion
9:15 pm - 9:30 pmOverview Discussion
FRIDAY
7:30 am - 8:30 amBreakfast
9:00 amDeparture
Funding for this conference was made possible (in part) by (1 R13 EY018007-01) from (National Eye Institute). The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.