Spiking activity of neurons in macaque dorsal visual cortex during a fixation and saccade task.

The data includes spike times (1 ms resolution) for single neurons recorded extracellularly in macaque areas LIP (74), VIP (107), and MT/MST (95). Fixation targets (red LEDs, diameter: 0.5°, luminance: 0.4 cd/m2) were back projected onto a translucent screen (size: 60° × 60°). All experiments were performed in the dark (luminance < 0.01 cd/m2). To prevent dark adaptation, room lights were briefly switched on prior to a new set of trials for at least a couple of seconds. At the beginning of each trial, the monkey maintained gaze (within 1° of error) on a target at one of five positions ([0,0],[-10,10],[-10,-10],[10,-10],[10,10]). After 1000ms, the target stepped 10° either rightward or downward. The animal performed a saccade to the new position within 500ms and maintained fixation for another 1000ms. All trial types were interleaved in a pseudorandom order. Eye position was tracked using binocular scleral search coils and digitized offline at a sampling rate of 1000Hz. Saccade onset (offset) was defined as the first time point at which eye velocity reached more (less) than 30% of the peak velocity observed within 80-600ms after the onset of the target (stepping forward and backward in time from the peak).