Population Coding of the Direction, Amplitude, and Velocity of Saccadic Eye Movements by Neurons in the Superior Colliculus

Abstract

Despite the remarkable advances being made by the application of the methods of cell and molecular biology to nervous tissue, molecular approaches to understanding brain function have inherent and severe limitations. Studies restricted to the analysis of the biochemical and biophysical attributes of neurons may produce elegant descriptions of the "hardware" used to perform neural computations, but understanding of the computations involved in the analysis and synthesis of sensory signals or the generation of commands for the control of coordinated movements is not likely to come from experiments restricted to the study of neurons in culture, neurons in brain slices, or neurons that are part of homogenized brain tissue. If the operations performed by neurons are to be understood, efforts devoted to describing the neural hardware using molecular techniques must be accompanied by equally intensive attempts devoted to an understanding of the computational algorithms performed by this hardware.