RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Human subcortical pathways automatically detect collision trajectory without attention and awareness
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.02.10.527946
DO 10.1101/2023.02.10.527946
A1 Fanhua Guo
A1 Jinyou Zou
A1 Ye Wang
A1 Boyan Fang
A1 Huafen Zhou
A1 Dajiang Wang
A1 Sheng He
A1 Peng Zhang
YR 2023
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/02/12/2023.02.10.527946.abstract
AB Detecting imminent collisions is essential for our survival and is likely supported by evolutionarily conserved mechanisms in the brain. Using high-resolution 7T fMRI, we investigated subcortical pathways for detecting collision trajectories in healthy human subjects and hemianopic patients. When healthy participants focused their attention on a central fixation task, their superior colliculus (SC), ventromedial pulvinar (vmPul) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) elicited stronger responses to a peripheral object approaching on head-collision courses compared to near-miss trajectories. Correlation and path analyses of collision-sensitive responses revealed collision sensitivity in the SC-vmPul and SC-VTA pathways without attention and cortical influence. Both behavioral performance and SC responses showed higher sensitivity to looming stimuli from the upper visual field. For hemianopic patients with unilateral lesions of the geniculostriate pathway, the ipsilesional SC, vmPul and VTA showed collision sensitivity to looming stimuli in their blind visual field, in the absence of their awareness. Stronger responses in the SC were also associated with better detection performance of the collision events. These findings clearly demonstrate that human tectofugal pathways, without attention and awareness, automatically detects approaching objects on a collision course, supporting blindsight to impending visual threats.HighlightsSC-vmPul and SC-VTA pathways show collision sensitivity without attention and cortical influence in healthy participants.Both behavioral performance and SC responses show higher sensitivity to looming stimuli from the upper visual field.The ipsilesional SC, vmPul and VTA of hemianopic patients automatically detects collision trajectories in their blind visual field without awareness.SC response is associated with “blindsight” detection of impending collisions.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.