Measuring visual stimulation and attention signals in human superior colliculus using high-resolution fMRI

Dedication According to the philosophy of science of Yoga, the quest for Truth is the inherent longing of an individual's mind. The word 'consciousness' in Sanskrit language is known by the terms Purusa or Shiva and is synonymous with such a Truth. What humans through self-reflection refer to as subjectivity or consciousness is actually omnipresent, though most clearly reflected by the human mind. Therefore, instead of consciousness being a generative property of the human mind, and therefore the brain, mind itself is a step through the process of evolution. In fact, the process of evolution is the process of evolution of consciousness. In successive stages of this evolution, consciousness goes on a journey from crude to subtle, starting in the material realm, followed by the mental or psychic realm and culminating in the spiritual realm. According this philosophy, the mind-body " problem " does not exist for dualism is only an apparent sage of an individual's mind. The unveiling of this seeming illusion begins by understanding the continuity of the physico-psychic-spirirual parallelism, though proceeds only through means of spiritual practices or sadhana. Sadhana should not be identified with religion or religiosity and in the beginning is best approached with full skepticism, for at its core lies the non-acceptance of dogma of any kind. It may, however, seem psychologically daunting in the beginning, because it is a process of purification of the mind, but becomes easier as one slowly gets established in a universal ideation for a substantial part of their waking life. The final goal of sadhana then is the realization of this inherent non-duality of the physico-psychic-spiritual realms, which in mystical terms is often known as 'realization' or 'liberation'. I fully and completely dedicate myself to understanding of the Truth in its purest form not mired by dogma of any kind, and for that I take the path of science and more importantly the science of mind in addition to my spiritual path. I dedicate this dissertation and the quest of my doctoral years, to the individual I identify as my spiritual preceptor, my Gurudeva, whom I love most dearly, Shrii Shrii Anandamurtiiji. The superior colliculus (SC) is a laminated oculomotor structure in the midbrain. In non-human primates SC has long been known to contain a retinotopically-organized map of visual stimulation in its superficial layers, which is aligned to a map of saccadic eye movements in the deeper layers. …