The superior colliculus is a midbrain region that is traditionally thought to help animals orient themselves toward important locations in space, like directing their eyes and head toward a bright flash of light. New research from the University of Chicago shows that this part of the brain also plays a role in complex cognitive tasks like visual categorization and decision making. In the new study, published in Nature Neuroscience , scientists measured the information contained in patterns of brain cell activity across multiple brain regions involved in visual category decisions.
The researchers monitored activity in the superior colliculus (SC) and part of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), a region of the cerebral cortex that is important for visual categorical decisions. To their surprise, they saw that activity in the SC was even more involved than the PPC in guiding the subjects' category decisions, suggesting that it helps coordinate higher-order cognitive processes traditionally thought to take place in the neocortex. "This is a really surprising place to find these kinds of cognitive signals because this area of the brain is traditionally associated with simpler spatial orienting behaviors and even reflexive functions," said David Freedman, PhD, Professor of Neurobiology and the Neuroscience Institute at UChicago and senior author of the new study.
We have this evolutionarily ancient brain structure that seems to be even more involved in complex cognitive decisions .