Superior colliculus neurons encode a visual saliency map during free viewing of natural dynamic video

Brian J. White (), David J. Berg, Janis Y. Kan, Robert A. Marino, Laurent Itti and Douglas P. Munoz
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Brian J. White: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University
David J. Berg: IBM Research, Almaden
Janis Y. Kan: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University
Robert A. Marino: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University
Laurent Itti: University of Southern California
Douglas P. Munoz: Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Models of visual attention postulate the existence of a saliency map whose function is to guide attention and gaze to the most conspicuous regions in a visual scene. Although cortical representations of saliency have been reported, there is mounting evidence for a subcortical saliency mechanism, which pre-dates the evolution of neocortex. Here, we conduct a strong test of the saliency hypothesis by comparing the output of a well-established computational saliency model with the activation of neurons in the primate superior colliculus (SC), a midbrain structure associated with attention and gaze, while monkeys watched video of natural scenes. We find that the activity of SC superficial visual-layer neurons (SCs), specifically, is well-predicted by the model. This saliency representation is unlikely to be inherited from fronto-parietal cortices, which do not project to SCs, but may be computed in SCs and relayed to other areas via tectothalamic pathways.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14263

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