We studied the role of the primate frontal eye fields (FEFs) in eye-head gaze shifts by recording EMG activity from multiple dorsal neck muscles after electrical stimulation of a broad distribution of sites throughout FEF. We assess our results in light of four mechanisms forwarded to account for why eye and head movements follow FEF stimulation. Two mechanisms propose that movements are generated indirectly by FEF stimulation in response to either a percept or an eccentric orbital position. Two other mechanisms propose that movements are evoked directly through the issuance of either a gaze command or separate eye and head commands. FEF stimulation evoked short-latency ( approximately 20 ms) neck EMG responses from the vast majority (>95%) of stimulation sites. Evoked responses usually preceded the gaze shift by approximately 20 ms, even for small gaze shifts (<10 degrees ) not typically associated with head motion. Evoked responses began earlier and attained a larger magnitude when accompanied by larger gaze shifts and took a form consistent with the recruitment of the appropriately directed head movements to accompany the evoked gaze shift. We also observed robust neck EMG even when stimulation failed to evoke a gaze shift and occasionally observed head-only movements when the head was unrestrained. These results resemble neck EMG evoked from the superior colliculus (SC). Neck EMG response latencies approached the minimal conduction time to the motor periphery and hence are not consistent with either of the indirect mechanisms. The widespread nature of the cephalomotor drive from the FEF, the scaling of neck EMG responses with gaze magnitude, and the consistently earlier generation of the EMG versus gaze response are difficult to reconcile with suggestions that separate FEF channels encode eye and head motion independently. The most parsimonious interpretation is that a gaze command issued by the FEF is decomposed into eye and head commands downstream of the SC. The relative timing of the neck EMG and gaze shift responses, and the presence of neck EMG responses on trials without gaze shifts, implies that head premotor elements are not subjected to the same brain stem control mechanisms governing gaze shifts.

In addition to its role in shifting the line of sight, the oculomotor system is also involved in the covert orienting of visuospatial attention. Causal evidence supporting this premotor theory of attention, or oculomotor readiness hypothesis, comes from the effect of subsaccadic threshold stimulation of the oculomotor system on behavior and neural activity in the absence of evoked saccades, which parallels the effects of covert attention. Here, by recording neck-muscle activity from monkeys and systematically titrating the level of stimulation current delivered to the frontal eye fields (FEF), we show that such subsaccadic stimulation is not divorced from immediate motor output but instead evokes neckmuscle responses at latencies that approach the minimal conduction time to the motor periphery. On average, neck-muscle thresholds were ∼25% lower than saccade thresholds, and this difference is larger for FEF sites associated with progressively larger saccades. Importantly, we commonly observed lower neck-muscle thresholds even at sites evoking saccades ≤5°in magnitude, although such small saccades are not associated with head motion. Neck-muscle thresholds compare well with the current levels used in previous studies to influence behavior or neural activity through activation of FEF neurons feeding back to extrastriate cortex. Our results complement this previous work by suggesting that the neurobiologic substrate that covertly orients visuospatial attention shares this command with head premotor circuits in the brainstem, culminating with recruitment in the motor periphery.eye-head gaze shifts | oculomotor | visuospatial attention O ur understanding of the functional role of the frontal eye fields (FEF) continues to evolve. Long recognized as a key cortical structure for saccade generation, two sets of recent results emphasize a broader mandate. For example, subsaccadic (in terms of current or frequency) stimulation of the FEF modulates behavior and alters sensory receptive fields in extrastriate visual cortices in a manner paralleling the covert allocation of visuospatial attention (1-6) without evoking saccades. Subsaccadic stimulation also increases the influence of the apparent position illusion on the metrics of voluntary saccades (7), although the deviation of saccades evoked by suprasaccadic currents does not obligatorily reflect the locus of attention (8). Although the precise mechanisms linking the saccade and attention functions of the FEF remain to be determined, these results imply a causal role for the FEF in the covert allocation of visuospatial attention that is presumably mediated by feedback connections to extrastriate cortex (9, 10).A second line of research shows that the motor contribution of the FEF is not limited to saccadic eye movements. FEF stimulation in head-unrestrained monkeys elicits eye-head gaze saccades (11-13), which is consistent with a more general role for the FEF in orienting. Although the head usually lags the eyes because of inertia, FEF stimulation evokes neck-muscle respo...

Movement-related activity within the superior colliculus (SC) represents the desired displacement of an impending gaze shift. This representation must ultimately be transformed into position-based reference frames appropriate for coordinated eye-head gaze shifts. Parietal areas that project to the SC are modulated by the initial position of both the eye-re-head and head-re-body and SC activity is modulated by eye-re-head position. These considerations led us to investigate whether SC activity is modulated by the head-re-body position. We recorded activity from movement-related SC neurons while head-restrained monkeys performed a delayed-saccade task. Across blocks of trials, the horizontal position of the body was rotated under a space-fixed head to three to five different positions spanning +/-25 degrees . We observed a significant influence of body-under-head position on SC activity in 50/60 neurons. This influence was expressed predominantly as a linear gain field, scaling task-related SC activity without changing the location of the response field (linear gain fields explained >/=20% of the variance in neural activity in approximately 50% of our sample). Smaller nonlinear modulations were also observed in roughly 30% of our sample. SC activity was equally likely to increase or decrease as the body was rotated to the side of neuronal recording and we found no systematic relationship between the directionality or magnitude of the linear gain field with recording location in the SC. We conclude that a signal conveying head-re-body position is present in the SC. Although the functional significance remains open, our findings are consistent with the SC contributing to a displacement-to-position transformation for oculomotor control.

The study deals with the legal questions of Hungarian consumer protection. The purpose of the paper is to reflect on nowadays issues of financial consumer protection and to demonstrate how does it affect everyday life. A malfunctioning monetary intercessory scheme is likely to give a rise to major imbalance in the structure of economy; therefore, consumers lose their persuasion in the reliability of financial institutions. Concerning the definition of consumer, the authors call out the contentious fields of the whole area of law while sketching some solutions of the Hungarian regulation. It is inevitable to be aware that without the services of financial institutions, the economic development is unimaginable. That is the reason why financial consumers have to face with injustices in most cases, concerning the monetary sector. The study puts injustice great emphasis on the consumer protectionist role and on the tools of the supervision, underlining the newly regulated macroprudential instruments. Based on experience, there is a need for softening the regulation of financial consumer protection, as long as it is an important, not just an individual-related question. There are different solutions for defending the rights of consumers, including the tool system of the financial supervision, the alternative dispute settlement conducted by the Financial Arbitration Board and the office of the financial ombudsman.

OBJECTIVES:To estimate the costs associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) for Russia in 2009. METHODS: We used the standard cost of illness (COI) method adopting the viewpoint of the payers (national and regional governments). The data was obtained from the national statistics, registries, expert panel interviews and literature. The costs were calculated for the total population of JIA patients in Russia in 2009. We calculated direct medical costs (based on national reimbursement rates and regional data on drug costs), non-medical costs (social benefits expenditures) and indirect costs -productivity loss due to the necessity of providing care for patients by parents. Indirect costs were assessed using friction costs method. RESULTS: The total costs of JIA in Russia in 2009 was 1.175 billion RUR (€28,48 mln), or 76,013 RUR (€1843) per patient per year. The highest per person costs were attributed to patients with systemic JIA -189,489 RUR (€4594), the lowest -with oligoarticular type of JIA (40,223 RUR (€975)).The costs for handicapped child were 3.9 times higher than for those without disability, mostly because of different social benefits. The direct medical costs accounted for 31,5% of total spending, direct non-medical costs -for 55,6%, and indirect costs -for 12,8%. The share of direct non-medical costs in the overall spending was lower in less severe patients: 58.3% for the systemic JIA, 57.7% for the polyarticular and 46.4% for the oligoarticular type of JIA. Direct nonmedical costs represented 75.8% of total costs for handicapped child versus 42.8% in patient without such status. CONCLUSIONS: JIA represents significant social and economic burden for the state. The costs for handicapped child are several times higher than for the one without disability due to social benefits payments.