Separate visual signals for saccade initiation during target selection in the primate superior colliculus.

The primary function of the superior colliculus (SC) is to orient the visual system toward behaviorally relevant stimuli defined by features such as color. However, a longstanding view has held that visual activity in the SC arises exclusively from achromatic pathways. Recently, we reported evidence that the primate SC is highly sensitive to signals originating from chromatic pathways, but these signals are delayed relative to luminance signals (White et al., 2009). Here, we describe a functional consequence of this difference in visual arrival time on the processes leading to target selection and saccade initiation. Two rhesus monkeys performed a simple color-singleton selection task in which stimuli carried a chromatic component only (target and distractors were isoluminant with the background, but differed in chromaticity) or a combined chromatic-achromatic component (36% luminance contrast added equally to all stimuli). Although visual responses were delayed in the chromatic-only relative to the combined chromatic-achromatic condition, SC neurons discriminated the target from distractors at approximately the same time provided stimulus chromaticity was held constant. However, saccades were triggered sooner, and with more errors, with the chromatic-achromatic condition, suggesting that luminance signals associated with these stimuli increased the probability of triggering a saccade before the target color was adequately discriminated. These results suggest that separate mechanisms may independently influence the saccadic command in the SC, one linked to the arrival time of pertinent visual signals, and another linked to the output of the visual selection process.