Dr. James C. Lynch

James C. Lynch, Ph.D.

Professor of Anatomy
Department of Anatomy
The University of Mississippi Medical Center
2500 North State Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39216-4505 

Office Telephone: 601-984-1657
                  601-984-1640
Department FAX:   601-984-1655
: jclynch@anatomy.umsmed.edu


EDUCATION

Ph.D, Stanford University, 1971


MAJOR SCIENTIFIC INTEREST

Research in this laboratory focuses on the functional organization and anatomical connectivity of regions in the cerebral cortex that are concerned with the control of voluntary movement, and specifically with voluntary eye movement. We have used behavioral studies, behavioral neurophysiology studies, and physiologically-guided neuroanatomical studies in non-human primates to determine that there are several distinct regions in the cerebral cortex (designated eye fields) that form a cortico-cortical network that functions cooperatively to guide and execute voluntary, visually guided saccadic and pursuit eye movements.

Cortical eye fields in the monkey. Most eye fields contain discrete subregions that participate in the control of either saccadic or smooth pursuit eye movements. Each eye field has direct projections to the brainstem oculomotor system, and each eye field is connected reciprocally with most other eye fields. FEF, frontal eye field; MST, medial superior temporal area; PEF, parietal eye field; PFEF, prefrontal eye field; SEF, supplementary eye field. Adapted from Lynch, J. C. and Tian, J.R. Cortico cortical networks and cortico subcortical loops for the higher control of eye movements. Progress in Brain Research 151: 461 501, 2006.
Representative cortical subcortical cortical feedback circuits in the oculomotor system. Heavy blue dashed lines indicate a feedback loop related to the control of pursuit eye movements that runs from the pursuit eye movement subregion of the frontal eye field (FEFsem) to the striatum (caudate and putamen), then to the thalamus, and finally returning to the FEFsem. Heavy red dashed lines indicate a feedback loop that runs from the saccadic eye movement subregion of the frontal eye field (FEFsac) to the superior colliculus (SC), then back to the thalamus, and finally returning to the FEFsac. The gray boxes on the right illustrate the primary smooth pursuit pathway and a secondary saccade pathway through the cerebellum. Feedback loops similar to A and B also exist in the cerebellar pathways, but are not illustrated here. Thalamic nuclei: DM, dorsomedial nucleus; VLcr, rostral portion of ventral lateral nucleus, pars caudalis; VApc, parvocellular portion of ventral anterior nucleus. GP, globus pallidus; SC, superior colliculus; SNpr, substantia nigra, pars reticulata; PPRF, paramedian pontine reticular formation; riMLF, rostral interstitial nucleus of the medial longitudinal fasciculus. Adapted from Cui D. M., Yan Y. J., and Lynch, J.C. Pursuit subregion of the frontal eye field projects to the caudate nucleus in monkeys. Journal of Neurophysiology, 89: 2678 2684, 2003.

RECENT REVIEW CHAPTERS

Lynch, J.C. Anatomical Pathways for Oculomotor Control. In: New Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, ed. L. Squire, Elsevier, New York, in press.

Lynch, J.C. and Tian, J.R. Cortico-cortical networks and cortico-subcortical loops for the higher control of eye movements. In: Progress in Brain Research, Vol 151: Neuroanatomy of the Oculomotor System, ed. J. Buettner-Ennever, Elsevier, New York, 2006.


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  1. Dewson, J.H.,III, K.H. Pribram and J.C.Lynch. Effects of ablations of temporal cortex upon speech sound discrimination in the monkey.Exper. Neurol. 24: 579-591, 1969.
  2. Mountcastle, V.B., J.C. Lynch, A. Georgopoulos, H. Sakata and C. Acuña. The posterior parietal association cortex of the monkey: command functions for operations within extrapersonal space. J. Neurophysiol. 38: 871-908, 1975.
  3. Lynch, J.C., V.B. Mountcastle, W.H. Talbot and T.C.-T. Yin. Parietal lobe mechanisms for directed visual attention. J. Neurophysiol. 40: 362-389, 1977.
  4. Lynch, J.C. The functional organization of posterior parietal association cortex. Behav. Brain Sci. 3: 485-534, 1980.
  5. Lynch, J.C., A.M. Graybiel and L.J. Lobeck. The differential projection of two cytoarchitectonic subregions of the inferior parietal lobule of macaque upon the deep layers of the superior colliculus. J. Comp. Neurol. 235: 241-254, 1985.
  6. Lynch, J.C. Frontal eye field lesions in monkeys disrupt visual pursuit. Exper. Brain Res. 68: 437-441, 1987.
  7. Lynch, J.C. and J.W. McLaren. Deficits of visual attention and saccadic eye movements after lesions of parieto-occipital cortex in monkeys. J. Neurophysiol. 61: 74-90, 1989.
  8. Lynch, J.C. This Week's Citation Classic: "Parietal association cortex: Sensory or beyond." (Behav. Brain Sci. 3: 485-534, 1980). Current Contents (Social and Behavioral Sciences) 23: 10, 1991.
  9. Lynch, J.C. Saccade initiation and latency deficits after combined lesions of the frontal and posterior eye fields in monkeys. J. Neurophysiol. 68: 1913-1916, 1992.
  10. Lynch, J.C., Hoover, J.E., and Strick, P.L. Input to the primate frontal eye field from the substantia nigra, superior colliculus, and dentate nucleus demonstrated by transneuronal transport. Exp. Brain Res. 100:181-186, 1994.
  11. Tian, J.-R. and Lynch, J.C. Slow and saccadic eye movements evoked by microstimulation in the supplementary eye field of the Cebus monkey. J. Neurophysiol. 74: 2204-2210, 1995.
  12. Lynch, J.C. The Cerebral Cortex. In: Fundamental Neuroscience, ed. D. Haines. Churchill-Livingstone, New York, 1997.
  13. Lynch, J.C. Posterior parietal association cortex. In: Encyclopedia of Neuroscience (Second Edition), ed. G. Adelman. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1998.
  14. Lynch, J.C. Columnar organization of the cerebral cortex. In: Encyclopedia of Neuroscience (Second Edition), ed. G. Adelman. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1998.
  15. Tian, J.-R. and Lynch, J.C. Functionally defined smooth and saccadic eye movement subregions in the frontal eye field of the Cebus monkey. J. Neurophysiol., 76: 2740-2753, 1996.
  16. Tian, J.-R. and Lynch, J.C. Cortico-cortical input to the smooth and saccadic eye movement subregions of the frontal eye field in the Cebus monkey. J. Neurophysiol., 76: 2754-2771, 1996.
  17. Tian, J.-R., Lynch, J.C. Subcortical input to the smooth and saccadic eye movement subregions of the frontal eye field in Cebus monkey. J. Neurosci. 17:9233-9247, 1997.
  18. Ma, T.P., Lynch, J.C., Donahoe, D. K., Attallah, H. and Rafols, J.A. Organization of the medial pulvinar nucleus in the macaque. Anat. Record., 250: 220-237, 1998.
  19. Clower, D.M., West, R.A., Lynch, J.C., and Strick, P.L. The inferior parietal lobule is the target of output from the superior colliculus, hippocampus and cerebellum. J. Neurosci., 21: 6283-6291, 2001.
  20. Yan, Y.-J., Cui, D., and Lynch, J.C. Overlap of saccadic and pursuit eye movement systems in the brainstem reticular formation. J. Neurophysiol., 86: 3056-3060, 2001.
  21. Haines, D. E., Hutchins, J. B., and Lynch, J. C. Medical neurobiology: do we teach neurobiology in a format that is relevant to the clinical setting? Anat. Rec. (New Anat.) 269:00-106, 2002.
  22. Cui, D.-M., Yan, Y.-J., and Lynch, J. C. The pursuit subregion of the frontal eye field projects to the caudate nucleus in monkeys. J. Neurophysiol., 89: 2678-2684, 2003.
  23. Gaymard, B., Lynch, J. C., Ploner, C. J., Rivaud-Péchoux, S. The parieto-collicular pathway. Anatomical location and contribution to saccade generation. Eur. J. Neurosci., 17: 1518-1526, 2003.
  24. Lynch, J.C. The Cerebral Cortex. In: Fundamental Neuroscience, ed. D. Haines. (Third Edition) Churchill-Livingstone, New York, 2006.
  25. Lynch, J.C., Corbett, J.J., and Hutchins, J.B. The Cerebral Cortex. In: Fundamental Neuroscience, ed. D. Haines. (Third Edition) Churchill-Livingstone, New York, 2006.

RECENT PRESENTATIONS
  1. Lynch, J.C. Cortical Networks that Control Goal-Directed Eye Movements. The Brain Research Institute, UCLA. February 15, 1996.
  2. Lynch, J.C. Cortical Networks that Control Purposeful Eye Movements. Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology. February 16, 1996.
  3. Lynch, J.C. Brain lesion experiments in monkey cortical eye fields. Beijing Neurological Association, Beijing, P.R. China. October 9, 1996.
  4. Lynch, J.C. Recent advances in visual system anatomy and physiology research. Beijing Laboratory of Cognitive Science, University of Science and Technology of China and Chinese National Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China. October 10, 1996.
  5. Lynch, J.C. Parallel cortico-cortical networks control purposeful saccadic and pursuit eye movements. Human Neurobiology Seminar Series, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. May 12, 1997.
  6. Lynch, J.C. Functional neuroanatomy of voluntary motor control. First Brain Imaging and Cognition Symposium, presented by the Chinese Academy of Science and Beijing Hospital Brain Imaging and Cognition Research Center, Beijing, P.R. China. November 5, 1997.
  7. Lynch, J.C. Cerebral cortex mechanisms of oculomotor control in monkeys and humans. First Sino-American Conference on Eye Movement Control. Jointly sponsored by the America-China Association for Neurology and Neuroscience Exchange, Chinese Education Association for International Exchange, and the General Hospital of the PLA. Beijing, P.R. China, July 29-30, 1999.
  8. Lynch, J.C. Pursuit-related projections of the Frontal Eye Field to saccade-related centers in the subcortical oculomotor system. Neural Control of Movement 11th Annual Meeting, Seville, Spain, March 25-30, 2001.
  9. Organized and moderated a symposium titled "Cortical Eye Fields: How Much More Than Motor?" Participants included Stephen Lisberger, UCSF; Marc Sommer, NEI/NIH; Brian Coe, Queen's University, Kingston; Bertrand Gaymard, L'Hopital de la Saltpetriere, Paris; and myself. Presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Neural Control of Movement Society, Sitges, Spain, March 28-April 3, 2004.
  10. Lynch, J.C. A distributed cortical network for the control of voluntary eye movements. Presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Neural Control of Movement Society, Sitges, Spain, March 28-April 3, 2004.
  11. Lynch, J.C. All the right connections: What can oculomotor thalamus do for you? Symposium presentation at the Neural Control of Movement Annual Meeting, Key Biscayne, Florica, May 3, 2006.

GRANT SUPPORT

1 R01 DC05785-01, Motor Learning and Neural Plasticity in Vestibular System. 10-1-2002 to 9-30-2007. Wu Zhou, P.I.; J.C. Lynch, Co-investigator, 20% effort. Direct costs: $200,000 per year.

Return to Faculty Listing, Department of Anatomy
 Return to Department of Anatomy Home Page

For further information or to send comments, you could send Email to: anatomy@anatomy.umsmed.edu
The University of Mississippi Medical Center offers equal opportunity
in education, employment, and services, M/F/D/V.
Last updated: Tuesday, June 1, 3:31:46 PM