Abstract
The superior colliculus is often studied for its role in visually guided behaviors, but research in non-human animals indicates it is a midbrain hub for processing sensory information from multiple domains, including interoception (which is associated with affect). We used ultra-high field 7-Tesla fMRI to extend this work to humans, modeling superior colliculus BOLD signal intensity during visual or somatosensory stimulation (N = 40 in each sensory modality), both under aversive and neutral affective intensity. As hypothesized, the superior colliculus showed increased BOLD signal intensity in the dorsal and ventral subregions during visual and somatosensory stimulation, respectively. The entire superior colliculus also showed increased BOLD signal intensity during aversive compared to neural conditions. The superior colliculus BOLD signal intensity also correlated with a preregistered set of brain regions involved in visual, somatosensory, and interoceptive processing.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
↵* shared senior authorship
Competing interests Statement The authors declare no competing interests.
Contributions P.A.K., L.L.W, M.B., T.W., K.S., A.B.S., and L.F.B. conceptualized the study and designed the experiment. D.C., P.A.K., P.W.S., J.E.T., performed and analyzed the experiment. D.C., L.F.B., and J.E.T., wrote the first draft of the manuscript after which all authors contributed to its editing.