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Published January 1999 | Published
Journal Article Open

Analog VLSI-Based Modeling of the Primate Oculomotor System

Abstract

One way to understand a neurobiological system is by building a simulacrum that replicates its behavior in real time using similar constraints. Analog very large-scale integrated (VLSI) electronic circuit technology provides such an enabling technology. We here describe a neuromorphic system that is part of a long-term effort to understand the primate oculomotor system. It requires both fast sensory processing and fast motor control to interact with the world. A one-dimensional hardware model of the primate eye has been built that simulates the physical dynamics of the biological system. It is driven by two different analog VLSI chips, one mimicking cortical visual processing for target selection and tracking and another modeling brain stem circuits that drive the eye muscles. Our oculomotor plant demonstrates both smooth pursuit movements, driven by a retinal velocity error signal, and saccadic eye movements, controlled by retinal position error, and can reproduce several behavioral, stimulation, lesion, and adaptation experiments performed on primates.

Additional Information

© 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Received December 1, 1997; accepted June 15, 1998. We thank Brooks Bishofberger for mechanical design of the oculomotor system and fabrication of some of the dynamics simulation electronics, Tobi Delbrück for advice on photoreceptor circuit layout, Paul Hasler for advice on the floating-gate structures, and Tonia Morris and Steven P. DeWeerth for their assistance and guidance in some important parts of the attentional selection circuits. We also thank Steven Lisberger, Rodney Douglas, and Terry Sejnowski for advice rendered over many years. The research reported here was supported by the Office of Naval Research and the Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering as part of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center Program.

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September 14, 2023
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