The DOI matches its Crossref record; 225 of the 226 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The tectum/superior colliculus as the vertebrate solution for spatial sensory integration and action
Open accessAbstract
The superior colliculus, or tectum in the case of non-mammalian vertebrates, is a part of the brain that registers events in the surrounding space, often through vision and hearing, but also through electrosensation, infrared detection, and other sensory modalities in diverse vertebrate lineages. This information is used to form maps of the surrounding space and the positions of different salient stimuli in relation to the individual. The sensory maps are arranged in layers with visual input in the uppermost layer, other senses in deeper positions, and a spatially aligned motor map in the deepest layer. Here, we will review the organization and intrinsic function of the tectum/superior colliculus and the information that is processed within tectal circuits. We will also discuss tectal/superior colliculus outputs that are conveyed directly to downstream motor circuits or via the thalamus to cortical areas to control various aspects of behavior. The tectum/superior colliculus is evolutionarily conserved among all vertebrates, but tailored to the sensory specialties of each lineage, and its roles have shifted with the emergence of the cerebral cortex in mammals. We will illustrate both the conserved and divergent properties of the tectum/superior colliculus through vertebrate evolution by comparing tectal processing in lampreys belonging to the oldest group of extant vertebrates, larval zebrafish, rodents, and other vertebrates including primates.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“the optic tectum networks, that provide common body-centered frames of reference for multisensory integration and for sensory-motor transformations”
From Spatial Cognition in Teleost Fish: Strategies and Mechanisms (2021) · cites this paper as [118]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Some of these systems are shared with other vertebrates and seem to correspond to an ancestral design well-conserved in the different vertebrate radiations.”
From Spatial Cognition in Teleost Fish: Strategies and Mechanisms (2021) · cites this paper as [118]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex
Hubel, D. H., & Wiesel, T. N. (1959) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1959.sp006308 · Cited by 4,653
Multisensory integration: current issues from the perspective of the single neuron
Stein, B. E., & Stanford, T. R. (2008) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn2331 · Cited by 1,598
VISUAL CAPACITY IN THE HEMIANOPIC FIELD FOLLOWING A RESTRICTED OCCIPITAL ABLATION
WEISKRANTZ, L., WARRINGTON, E. K., SANDERS, M. D., & MARSHALL, J. (1974) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/97.1.709 · Cited by 1,465
Eye movements evoked by collicular stimulation in the alert monkey
Robinson, D. A. (1972) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/0042-6989(72)90070-3 · Cited by 1,350
Role of the Basal Ganglia in the Control of Purposive Saccadic Eye Movements
Hikosaka, O., Takikawa, Y., & Kawagoe, R. (2000) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.2000.80.3.953 · Cited by 1,334
Meredith, M. A., & Stein, B. E. (1986) · Journal of Neurophysiology · doi:10.1152/jn.1986.56.3.640 · Cited by 1,183
The functional diversity of retinal ganglion cells in the mouse
Baden, T., Berens, P., Franke, K., Román Rosón, M., Bethge, M., & Euler, T. (2016) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature16468 · Cited by 999
Whole-genome duplication in teleost fishes and its evolutionary consequences
Glasauer, S. M. K., & Neuhauss, S. C. F. (2014) · Molecular Genetics and Genomics · doi:10.1007/s00438-014-0889-2 · Cited by 877
Sparks, D. L. (1986) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.1986.66.1.118 · Cited by 824
A circuit for detection of interaural time differences in the brain stem of the barn owl
Carr, C., & Konishi, M. (1990) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.10-10-03227.1990 · Cited by 819
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–204 of 204
Oral fish oil gavage alters relative fatty acid composition across brain regions in broiler chickens
Eltahan, H. M., Chowdhury, V. S., Ben-Qasem, N. S. S., El-Tahan, H. M., & Kim, I. H. (2026) · Poultry Science · doi:10.1016/j.psj.2026.107903
“The mesencephalon participates in visual and sensorimotor processing (Isa et al., 2021), the cerebellum in movement and balance (Paulin, 1993; Prati, 2024), and the brainstem in essential autonomic functions (Taylor et al., 1999; Sandercock et al., 2014).”
Electrical synapses mediate visual orientation behavior
Frighetto, G., Dombrovski, M., Castillo, L., Meera, P., Mirshahidi, P., Mirshahidi, P. S., Sanfilippo, P., Vaccari, A., Kandimalla, P., Hartenstein, V., et al. (2026) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2026.09.060 · Cited by 2
Martorell, N., & Medan, V. (2026) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2026.118007
“In both behavioral and imaging experiments, multisensory integration was quantified by comparing the activity elicited during multisensory stimulation with the activity observed during the most effective unisensory stimulus 45 .”
Wessendorf, M. W., & Wang, D. D. (2026) · Frontiers in Neuroanatomy · doi:10.3389/fnana.2026.1937941
Metadata
- Authors
- Isa, T., Marquez-Legorreta, E., Grillner, S., & Scott, E. K.
- Affiliations
- Kyoto University (JP)
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Scott, Ethan K.
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-06
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- R741-R762
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8190998
- OpenAlex
- W3166841720
- Cited by
- 206
- References
- 226
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 58 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 11
- FWCI
- 4.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) (submittedVersion)
- Kyoto University Research Information Repository (Kyoto University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Australian Research Council
- NHMRC
- AMED
- NIH
- Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- superior colliculus, tectum, sensory maps, thalamo-cortical pathways, motor control, vertebrate evolution, lamprey, zebrafish, rodents, primates, infrared detection, cerebral cortex
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cerebral Cortex, Humans, Lampreys, Primates, Rodentia, Superior Colliculi, Vertebrates, Visual Pathways, Zebrafish, Spatial Processing
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
