Spatial evolution in temporal dynamics of hemodynamic response function in human superior colliculi with ultra-high-resolution MRI at 9.4T

The superior colliculus (SC) plays a crucial role in multisensory integration, visual information processing, saccadic target selection, visual selective attention, and decision making. In particular, the SC has a key role in oculomotor coordination, following a rostro-caudal organization. The rostral SC, which corresponds to foveal representation, is linked to fixation, microsaccades, smooth pursuit, and vergence adjustments. In contrast, the caudal SC, representing more peripheral visual field, is associated with the large gaze shifts (saccades). However, evidence regarding whether this functional gradient is preserved in the human SC remains limited. In this study, we employed a sequence-following visual-motor task to specifically engage SC activity. We measured blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses to brief neural activity, known as hemodynamic response function (HRF). We showed a spatial gradient of the BOLD positive HRFs (pHRF) along the rostro-caudal axis of the SC. The pHRF was primarily located in the rostral SC, and it gradually weakened toward the caudal SC, where negative HRF (nHRF) was often observed. The systematic rostro-caudal evolution of HRFs were consistent both within and across subjects, consistent with results from previous electrophysiological studies. Our work showed the feasibility of using ultra-high-field fMRI to non-invasively examine neurovascular dynamics in a small and deeply located subcortical structures of the human brain.