Experiments were performed to examine the topography of covert visual attention signals in human superior colliculus (SC), both across its surface and in its depth. We measured the retinotopic organization of SC to direct visual stimulation using a 90° wedge of moving dots that slowly rotated around fixation. Subjects (n = 5) were cued to perform a difficult speed-discrimination task in the rotating region. To measure the retinotopy of covert attention, we used a full-field array of similarly moving dots. Subjects were cued to perform the same speed-discrimination task within a 90° wedge-shaped region, and only the cue rotated around fixation. High-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, 1.2 mm voxels) data were acquired throughout SC. These data were then aligned to a high-resolution T1-weighted reference volume. The SC was segmented in this volume so that the surface of the SC could be computationally modeled and to permit calculation of a depth map for laminar analysis. Retinotopic maps were obtained for both direct visual stimulation and covert attention. These maps showed a similar spatial distribution to visual stimulation maps observed in rhesus macaque and were in registration with each other. Within the depth of SC, both visual attention and stimulation produced activity primarily in the superficial and intermediate layers, but stimulation activity extended significantly more deeply than attention.

When the two eyes view incompatible images, perception alternates between them. What neural computations underlie this binocular rivalry? Perceptual alternations may simply reflect competition between the sets of monocular neurons that respond to each image, with the stronger driving perception. Here, we test an alternative hypothesis, that the computations that resolve rivalry make use of an active signal that reflects interocular conflict. Images presented to each eye were flickered at different frequencies while we measured steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP). Signals at frequencies that are combinations of the two input frequencies can arise only from binocular neurons. In a first experiment, we measured energy at these "intermodulation" frequencies during binocular rivalry and found it to be highest immediately before rivalry restarted following a period of incomplete resolution of rivalry (a "mixed" percept). This suggests that the intermodulation signals may arise from neurons important for resolving the conflict between the two eyes' inputs. In a second experiment, we tested whether the intermodulation signal arose from neurons that measure interocular conflict by parametrically increasing conflict while simultaneously reducing image contrast. The activity of neurons that receive input from both eyes but are not sensitive to conflict should reduce monotonically as contrast decreases. The intermodulation response, however, peaked at intermediate levels of conflict, suggesting that it arises in part from neurons that respond to interocular conflict. Binocular rivalry appears to depend on an active mechanism that detects interocular conflict, whose levels of activity can be measured by the intermodulation frequencies of the SSVEP.

When ambiguous visual stimuli have multiple interpretations, human perception can alternate between them, producing perceptual multistability. There is a large variation between individuals in how long stable percepts endure, on average, between switches, but the underlying neural basis of this individual difference in perceptual dynamics remains obscure. Here, we show that in one widely studied multistable paradigm–binocular rivalry–perceptual stability in individuals is predicted by the frequency of their neural oscillations within the alpha range (7–13 Hz). Our results suggest revising models of rivalry to incorporate effects of neural oscillations on perceptual alternations, and raise the possibility that a common factor may influence dynamics in many neural processes.

Human superior colliculus (SC) responds in a retinotopically selective manner when attention is deployed on a high-contrast visual stimulus using a discrimination task. To further elucidate the role of SC in endogenous visual attention, high-resolution fMRI was used to demonstrate that SC also exhibits a retinotopically selective response for covert attention in the absence of significant visual stimulation using a threshold-contrast detection task. SC neurons have a laminar organization according to their function, with visually responsive neurons present in the superficial layers and visuomotor neurons in the intermediate layers. The results show that the response evoked by the threshold-contrast detection task is significantly deeper than the response evoked by the high-contrast speed discrimination task, reflecting a functional dissociation of the attentional enhancement of visuomotor and visual neurons, respectively. Such a functional dissociation of attention within SC laminae provides a subcortical basis for the oculomotor theory of attention.