Novel insights into multisensory processing in the superior colliculus

Abstract

Combining information from multiple sensory modalities is an essential prerequisite to navigate the world around us. Thus, there has been an upsurge in studying multisensory processing in the brain over the last several decades. The long standing model system used to study how the brain combines information from different modalities at the level of single neurons has been the midbrain structure, the superior colliculus (SC). Previous studies has extensively characterized responses of SC neurons to stimuli from multiple modalities, the factors affecting the neurons’ ability to combine multisensory information and some of the behavioral benefits of combining information from different modalities have been widely studied. However the mechanisms by which such multisensory integration is achieved and the detailed nature of the receptive field architecture of these neurons that make it possible for them to support multisensory processing still remains largely ignored. Thus, the overarching goal of this thesis is to detail the receptive field architecture of multisensory SC neurons and study how such multisensory integration is brought about in these neurons with the hope of shedding light on the mechanistic processes underlying multisensory information processing in the brain which remains elusive to date.