Marc A. Sommer

Biomedical Engineering

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Marc A. Sommer Profile Photo

Research Themes

Bioelectric Engineering, Neural Engineering

Education

Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995

Positions

Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Associate Professor in Neurobiology
Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
Member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Investigator in the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research. Pratt School of Engineering. 2021
Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising. Pratt School of Engineering. 2017
Bass Fellow. Duke University. 2017
Research Fellowship-Neuroscience. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 2005

Courses Taught

NEUROSCI 755: Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Neuroscience (IPCN) Independent Research Rotation
NEUROSCI 517: Neuronal Control of Movement (GE, EL)
NEUROSCI 495: Research Independent Study 3
NEUROSCI 494: Research Independent Study 2
NEUROSCI 493: Research Independent Study 1
NEUROSCI 301L: Bioelectricity (AC or GE)
BME 792: Continuation of Graduate Independent Study
BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
BME 601L: Introduction to Neural Engineering
BME 517: Neuronal Control of Movement (GE, EL)
BME 494: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
BME 301L: Bioelectricity (AC or GE)

Publications

Goswami N, Shen M, Gomez LJ, Dannhauer M, Sommer MA, Peterchev AV. A semi-automated pipeline for finite element modeling of electric field induced in nonhuman primates by transcranial magnetic stimulation. J Neurosci Methods. 2024 Aug;408:110176.
Yu G, Ranieri F, Lazzaro VD, Sommer M, Peterchev A, Grill W. Circuits and Mechanisms for TMS-Induced Corticospinal Waves: Connecting Sensitivity Analysis to the Network Graph. bioRxiv. 2024.
Subramanian D, Pearson JM, Sommer MA. Bayesian and Discriminative Models for Active Visual Perception across Saccades. eNeuro. 2023 Jul;10(7).
Daw TB, El-Nahal HG, Basso MA, Jun EJ, Bautista AR, Samulski RJ, et al. Direct Comparison of Epifluorescence and Immunostaining for Assessing Viral Mediated Gene Expression in the Primate Brain. Human gene therapy. 2023 Mar;34(5–6):228–46.
Daw TB, El-Nahal HG, Basso MA, Jun EJ, Bautista AR, Samulski RJ, et al. Direct comparison of epifluorescence and immunostaining for assessing viral mediated gene expression in the primate brain. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 2022.
Goetz SM, Howell B, Wang B, Li Z, Sommer MA, Peterchev AV, et al. Isolating two sources of variability of subcortical stimulation to quantify fluctuations of corticospinal tract excitability. Clin Neurophysiol. 2022 Jun;138:134–42.
Subramanian D, Pearson J, Sommer M. Contributions of Bayesian and Discriminative Models to Active Visual Perception across Saccades. bioRxiv. 2022.
Caruso VC, Pages DS, Sommer MA, Groh JM. Compensating for a shifting world: evolving reference frames of visual and auditory signals across three multimodal brain areas. Journal of neurophysiology. 2021 Jul;126(1):82–94.
Liu S, Clements JM, Kirsch EP, Rao HM, Zielinski DJ, Lu Y, et al. Psychophysiological Markers of Performance and Learning during Simulated Marksmanship in Immersive Virtual Reality. J Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Jun 1;33(7):1253–70.
Tremblay S, Acker L, Afraz A, Albaugh DL, Amita H, Andrei AR, et al. An Open Resource for Non-human Primate Optogenetics. Neuron. 2020 Dec 23;108(6):1075-1090.e6.
Bohlen MO, McCown TJ, Powell SK, El-Nahal HG, Daw T, Basso MA, et al. Adeno-Associated Virus Capsid-Promoter Interactions in the Brain Translate from Rat to the Nonhuman Primate. Human gene therapy. 2020 Nov;31(21–22):1155–68.
Cushnie AK, El-Nahal HG, Bohlen MO, May PJ, Basso MA, Grimaldi P, et al. Using rAAV2-retro in rhesus macaques: Promise and caveats for circuit manipulation. Journal of neuroscience methods. 2020 Nov;345:108859.
Gamboa Arana OL, Palmer H, Dannhauer M, Hile C, Liu S, Hamdan R, et al. Intensity- and timing-dependent modulation of motion perception with transcranial magnetic stimulation of visual cortex. Neuropsychologia. 2020 Oct;147:107581.
Gamboa OL, Brito A, Abzug Z, D’Arbeloff T, Beynel L, Wing EA, et al. Application of long-interval paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation to motion-sensitive visual cortex does not lead to changes in motion discrimination. Neurosci Lett. 2020 Jun 21;730:135022.
Akbar N, Yarossi M, Martinez-Gost M, Sommer MA, Dannhauer M, Rampersad S, et al. Mapping Motor Cortex Stimulation to Muscle Responses: A Deep Neural Network Modeling Approach. In: The . International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments : PETRA . International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments. 2020. p. 15.
Gamboa Arana OL, Palmer H, Dannhauer M, Hile C, Liu S, Hamdan R, et al. Dose-dependent enhancement of motion direction discrimination with transcranial magnetic stimulation of visual cortex. 2020;
Abzug ZM, Sommer MA, Beck JM. Properties of decision-making tasks govern the tradeoff between model-based and model-free learning. 2019 Aug 14;
Toader AC, Rao HM, Ryoo M, Bohlen MO, Cruger JS, Oh-Descher H, et al. Probabilistic inferential decision-making under time pressure in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, DC : 1983). 2019 Aug;133(3):380–96.
Yeung AH-F, Subramanian D, Desai AD, Soltanian-Zadeh S, Roy A, Vajzovic L, et al. Spatio-temporal image modulation for enhancing the quality of vision with potential application in patients with retinal prostheses. In: INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE. ASSOC RESEARCH VISION OPHTHALMOLOGY INC; 2019.
Caruso VC, Pages DS, Sommer MA, Groh JM. Compensating for a shifting world: evolving reference frames of visual and auditory signals across three multimodal brain areas. 2019 Jun 13;
Subramanian D, Alers A, Sommer M. Corollary discharge for action and cognition (Accepted). Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 2019 May 30;
Yarossi M, Quivira F, Dannhauer M, Sommer MA, Brooks DH, Erdoǧmuş D, et al. An experimental and computational framework for modeling multi-muscle responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation of the human motor cortex. In: International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, NER. 2019. p. 1122–5.
Clements JM, Kopper R, Zielinski DJ, Rao H, Sommer MA, Kirsch E, et al. Neurophysiology of Visual-Motor Learning during a Simulated Marksmanship Task in Immersive Virtual Reality. In: 25th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2018 - Proceedings. 2018. p. 451–8.
Abzug ZM, Sommer MA. Neuronal correlates of serial decision-making in the supplementary eye field. Journal of Neuroscience. 2018 Aug 15;38(33):7280–92.
Rao HM, Khanna R, Zielinski DJ, Lu Y, Clements JM, Potter ND, et al. Sensorimotor Learning during a Marksmanship Task in Immersive Virtual Reality. Front Psychol. 2018;9:58.
Abzug ZM, Sommer MA. Serial decision-making in monkeys during an oculomotor task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition. 2018 Jan;44(1):95–102.
Caruso V, Pages D, Sommer MA, Groh J. Beyond the labeled line: variation in visual reference frames from intraparietal cortex to frontal eye fields and the superior colliculus. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2017 Dec 20;In Press.
Oh-Descher H, Beck JM, Ferrari S, Sommer MA, Egner T. Probabilistic inference under time pressure leads to a cortical-to-subcortical shift in decision evidence integration. NeuroImage. 2017 Nov 15;162:138–50.
Abzug ZM, Sommer MA. Supplementary Eye Fields. In: Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology. Elevier; 2017.
Oh H, Beck JM, Zhu P, Sommer MA, Ferrari S, Egner T. Satisficing in split-second decision making is characterized by strategic cue discounting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2016 Dec;42(12):1937–56.
Rao HM, Mayo JP, Sommer MA. Circuits for presaccadic visual remapping. J Neurophysiol. 2016 Dec 1;116(6):2624–36.
Rao HM, San Juan J, Shen FY, Villa JE, Rafie KS, Sommer MA. Neural network evidence for the coupling of presaccadic visual remapping to predictive eye position updating. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. 2016 Jun 2;10.
Raghavan RT, Prevosto V, Sommer MA. Contribution of cerebellar loops to action timing. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 2016 Mar 9;8:28–34.
Caruso VC, Pages DS, Sommer MA, Groh JM. Similar prevalence and magnitude of auditory-evoked and visually-evoked activity in the frontal eye fields: Implications for multisensory motor control. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2016 Mar 2;in press.
Zielinski DJ, Rao HM, Potter ND, Sommer MA, Appelbaum LG, Kopper R. Evaluating the Effects of Image Persistence on Dynamic Target Acquisition in Low Frame Rate Virtual Environments. 3D User Interfaces (3DUI), 2016 IEEE Symposium on. 2016;
Rao HM, Abzug ZM, Sommer MA. Visual continuity across saccades is influenced by expectations. Journal of vision. 2016 Jan;16(5):7.
Mayo JP, DiTomasso AR, Sommer MA, Smith MA. Dynamics of visual receptive fields in the macaque frontal eye field. J Neurophysiol. 2015 Dec;114(6):3201–10.
Grigsby EM, Koval MJ, Smith MV, Mueller JK, Deng ZD, Peterchev A, et al. Neural Effects of rTMS: Single Neuron Recordings From a Rhesus Macaque. JOURNAL OF ECT. 2015 Sep 1;31(3):E33–E33.
Zielinski DJ, Rao HM, Sommer MA, Kopper R. Exploring the Effects of Image Persistence in Low Frame Rate Virtual Environments. Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality Conference. 2015;
Matthews WJ, Terhune DB, van Rijn H, Eagleman DM, Sommer MA, Meck WA. Subjective duration as a signature of coding efficiency: Emerging links among stimulus repetition, predictive coding, and cortical GABA levels. Timing & Time Perception Reviews. 2014 Dec 1;1.
Mitchell AS, Sherman SM, Sommer MA, Mair RG, Vertes RP, Chudasama Y. Advances in understanding mechanisms of thalamic relays in cognition and behavior. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2014 Nov;34(46):15340–6.
Mueller JK, Grigsby EM, Prevosto V, Petraglia FW, Rao H, Deng Z-D, et al. Simultaneous transcranial magnetic stimulation and single-neuron recording in alert non-human primates. Nat Neurosci. 2014 Aug;17(8):1130–6.
Middlebrooks PG, Abzug Z, Sommer MA. Studying metacognitive processes at the single-neuron level. In: Fleming SM, Frith CD, editors. The Cognitive Neuroscience of Metacognition. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2014. p. 225–44.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. The Dialogue between Cerebral Cortex and Superior Colliculus: Multiple Ascending Pathways for Corollary Discharge. In MIT Press; 2014.
Prevosto V, Sommer MA. Cognitive control of movement via the cerebellar-recipient thalamus. Frontiers in systems neuroscience. 2013 Oct;7:56.
Ashmore RC, Sommer MA. Delay activity of saccade-related neurons in the caudal dentate nucleus of the macaque cerebellum. Journal of neurophysiology. 2013 Apr;109(8):2129–44.
Smith MA, Sommer MA. Spatial and temporal scales of neuronal correlation in visual area V4. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2013 Mar;33(12):5422–32.
Mayo JP, Sommer MA. Neuronal correlates of visual time perception at brief timescales. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jan 22;110(4):1506–11.
Shin S, Sommer MA. Division of labor in frontal eye field neurons during presaccadic remapping of visual receptive fields. Journal of neurophysiology. 2012 Oct;108(8):2144–59.
Mayo JP, DiTomasso A, Sommer M, Smith MA. An improved method for mapping neuronal receptive fields in prefrontal cortex. Journal of Vision. 2012 Aug 10;12(9):81–81.
Middlebrooks PG, Sommer MA. Neuronal correlates of metacognition in primate frontal cortex. Neuron. 2012 Aug;75(3):517–30.
Crapse TB, Sommer MA. Frontal eye field neurons assess visual stability across saccades. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2012 Feb;32(8):2835–45.
Basso MA, Sommer MA. Exploring the role of the substantia nigra pars reticulata in eye movements. Neuroscience. 2011 Dec;198:205–12.
Middlebrooks PG, Sommer MA. Metacognition in monkeys during an oculomotor task. Journal of experimental psychology Learning, memory, and cognition. 2011 Mar;37(2):325–37.
Mayo JP, Sommer MA. Shifting attention to neurons. Trends Cogn Sci. 2010 Sep;14(9):389.
Crapse T, Sommer M. Translation of a visual stimulus during a saccade is more detectable if it moves perpendicular, rather than parallel, to the saccade. Journal of Vision. 2010 Aug 6;10(7):521–521.
Shin S, Sommer MA. Activity of neurons in monkey globus pallidus during oculomotor behavior compared with that in substantia nigra pars reticulata. Journal of neurophysiology. 2010 Apr;103(4):1874–87.
Sommer MA. How the visual system monitors where the eyes will move. Journal of Vision. 2009 Dec 1;9(14):13–13.
Sommer MA. Corollary discharge circuits for stabilizing visual perception. PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY. 2009 Sep;46:S9–S9.
Mayo JP, Sommer MA. Monkey and human performance in a chronostasis task suitable for neurophysiology. Journal of Vision. 2009 Aug;9(8):406–406.
Crapse TB, Sommer MA. Frontal eye field neurons with spatial representations predicted by their subcortical input. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2009 Apr;29(16):5308–18.
Crapse TB, Sommer MA. Corollary Discharge. In: Goldstein RB, editor. Encyclopedia of Perception. London, UK: SAGE Publications; 2009. p. 325–7.
Shin SY, Crapse TB, Mayo JP, Sommer MA. Visuomotor Integration. In: Binder MD, Hirokawa N, Windhorst U, editors. Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009. p. 4354–9.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Single Neurons and Primate Behavior. In: Senior C, Russell T, Gazzaniga M, editors. Methods in Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2009. p. 123–39.
Sommer MA. Supplementary eye fields. In: Squire LR, editor. Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Oxford: Academic Press; 2009. p. 635–43.
Crapse TB, Sommer MA. Corollary discharge circuits in the primate brain. Current opinion in neurobiology. 2008 Dec;18(6):552–7.
Mayo JP, Sommer MA. Neuronal adaptation caused by sequential visual stimulation in the frontal eye field. J Neurophysiol. 2008 Oct;100(4):1923–35.
Crapse TB, Sommer MA. Corollary discharge across the animal kingdom. Nature reviews Neuroscience. 2008 Aug;9(8):587–600.
Mayo JP, Sommer MA. Neuronal adaptation: Delay compensation at the level of single neurons? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2008 Apr 1;31(2):210–2.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Visual perception and corollary discharge. Perception. 2008 Jan;37(3):408–18.
Crapse TB, Sommer MA. The frontal eye field as a prediction map. Progress in brain research. 2008 Jan;171:383–90.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Brain circuits for the internal monitoring of movements. Annual review of neuroscience. 2008 Jan;31:317–38.
Sommer MA. Microcircuits for attention. Neuron. 2007 Jul;55(1):6–8.
Sommer MA. The feeling of looking. Nature neuroscience. 2007 May;10(5):538–40.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Influence of the thalamus on spatial visual processing in frontal cortex. Nature. 2006 Nov;444(7117):374–7.
Wurtz RH, Sommer MA. A corollary discharge for perceptual stability. PERCEPTION. 2006 Jan 1;35:10–1.
Wurtz RH, Sommer MA, Cavanaugh J. Drivers from the deep: the contribution of collicular input to thalamocortical processing. Progress in brain research. 2005 Jan;149:207–25.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. What the brain stem tells the frontal cortex. I. Oculomotor signals sent from superior colliculus to frontal eye field via mediodorsal thalamus. Journal of neurophysiology. 2004 Mar;91(3):1381–402.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. What the brain stem tells the frontal cortex. II. Role of the SC-MD-FEF pathway in corollary discharge. Journal of neurophysiology. 2004 Mar;91(3):1403–23.
Wurtz RH, Sommer MA. Identifying corollary discharges for movement in the primate brain. In: Progress in Brain Research. Elsevier; 2004. p. 47–60.
Wurtz RH, Sommer MA. Identifying corollary discharges for movement in the primate brain. Progress in brain research. 2004 Jan;144:47–60.
Sommer MA. The role of the thalamus in motor control. Current opinion in neurobiology. 2003 Dec;13(6):663–70.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. The frontal eye field sends predictively remapped visual signals to the superior colliculus. Journal of Vision. 2003;3(9):146–146.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. A pathway in primate brain for internal monitoring of movements. Science (New York, NY). 2002 May;296(5572):1480–2.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Frontal eye field sends delay activity related to movement, memory, and vision to the superior colliculus. Journal of neurophysiology. 2001 Apr;85(4):1673–85.
Wurtz RH, Sommer MA, Paré M, Ferraina S. Signal transformations from cerebral cortex to superior colliculus for the generation of saccades. Vision research. 2001 Jan;41(25–26):3399–412.
Sommer M, Wurtz R. A subcortical source of visual input to the frontal eye field. Journal of Vision. 2001;1(3):259–259.
Port NL, Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Multielectrode evidence for spreading activity across the superior colliculus movement map. Journal of neurophysiology. 2000 Jul;84(1):344–57.
Tehovnik EJ, Sommer MA, Chou IH, Slocum WM, Schiller PH. Eye fields in the frontal lobes of primates. Brain research Brain research reviews. 2000 Apr;32(2–3):413–48.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Composition and topographic organization of signals sent from the frontal eye field to the superior colliculus. Journal of neurophysiology. 2000 Apr;83(4):1979–2001.
Wurtz RH, Basso MA, Paré M, Sommer MA. The Superior Colliculus and the Cognitive Control of Movement. In: Gazzaniga MS, editor. The New Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2000. p. 573–87.
Sommer MA, Tehovnik EJ. Reversible inactivation of macaque dorsomedial frontal cortex: effects on saccades and fixations. Experimental brain research. 1999 Feb;124(4):429–46.
Chou IH, Sommer MA, Schiller PH. Express averaging saccades in monkeys. Vision research. 1999 Jan;39(25):4200–16.
Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. Frontal eye field neurons orthodromically activated from the superior colliculus. Journal of neurophysiology. 1998 Dec;80(6):3331–5.
Nichols AM, Ruffner TW, Sommer MA, Wurtz RH. A screw microdrive for adjustable chronic unit recording in monkeys. Journal of neuroscience methods. 1998 Jun;81(1–2):185–8.
Tehovnik EJ, Sommer MA. Electrically evoked saccades from the dorsomedial frontal cortex and frontal eye fields: a parametric evaluation reveals differences between areas. Experimental brain research. 1997 Dec;117(3):369–78.
Sommer MA. The spatial relationship between scanning saccades and express saccades. Vision research. 1997 Oct;37(19):2745–56.
Sommer MA, Tehovnik EJ. Reversible inactivation of macaque frontal eye field. Experimental brain research. 1997 Sep;116(2):229–49.
Tehovnik EJ, Sommer MA. Effective spread and timecourse of neural inactivation caused by lidocaine injection in monkey cerebral cortex. Journal of neuroscience methods. 1997 Jun;74(1):17–26.
Tehovnik EJ, Sommer MA. Compensatory saccades made to remembered targets following orbital displacement by electrically stimulating the dorsomedial frontal cortex or frontal eye fields of primates. Brain research. 1996 Jul;727(1–2):221–4.
Sommer MA. Express saccades elicited during visual scan in the monkey. Vision research. 1994 Aug;34(15):2023–38.
Richards W, Wilson HR, Sommer MA. Chaos in percepts? Biological cybernetics. 1994 Jan;70(4):345–9.
Smith MA, Sadler RH, Sommer MA. The Macrophage as the Demyelinative Agent: A Role for Antimyelin Antibodies. In: Herndon RM, Seil FJ, editors. Multiple Sclerosis: Current Status of Research and Treatment. New York: Demos Publications; 1994. p. 51–66.
Sommer MA, Schiller PH, McPeek RM. What neural pathways mediate express saccades? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 1993 Sep;16(3):589–90.
Sommer MA, Forno LS, Smith ME. EAE cerebrospinal fluid augments in vitro phagocytosis and metabolism of CNS myelin by macrophages. Journal of neuroscience research. 1992 Jul;32(3):384–94.
Smith ME, Sommer MA. Association between cell-mediated demyelination and astrocyte stimulation. Progress in brain research. 1992 Jan;94:411–22.
Sadler RH, Sommer MA, Forno LS, Smith ME. Induction of anti-myelin antibodies in EAE and their possible role in demyelination. Journal of neuroscience research. 1991 Dec;30(4):616–24.
Hrushesky WJ, Fader DJ, Berestka JS, Sommer M, Hayes J, Cope FO. Diminishment of respiratory sinus arrhythmia foreshadows doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy. Circulation. 1991 Aug;84(2):697–707.
Sommer Marc A, Berestka John B. RSA -- Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia: A new measure of cardiac health. Medical Electronics. 1987 Apr;112–4.
Bohlen M, El-Nahal H, Sommer M. Transduction of Craniofacial Motoneurons Following Intramuscular Injections of Canine Adenovirus Type-2 (CAV-2) in Rhesus Macaques (Accepted). Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. In Press.

In The News

Five Faculty Named Bass Fellows for Excellence in Teaching and Research (Apr 18, 2017 | )