Collective excitations are commonplace features in nuclei at normal deformation. It has been suggested that both in the A\sim 190 and 150 superdeformed (SD) nuclei, collective vibrational states might occur in the same excitation energy range as quasi-particle and single-particle excitations. In particular, the large deformation associated with SD nuclei brings together orbitals from many spherical shells and leads to the close proximity of states with opposite parity, favouring octupole shape vibrations. However, to date, \sim 200 SD bands have been reported in more than 50 nuclei and in most cases, the excited SD bands have been interpreted as single or quasi-particle excitations. Only in very few cases, has the collective excitation scenario been suggested. Where are the collective states in SD nuclei? The question is particularly relevant in even--even A=190 nuclei in which SD states are observed at lower rotational frequency and hence the additional influence of the pair gap makes the collective excitations more competitive with quasi-particle excitations.

PACS numbers: 21.10.Re, 21.10.--g, 23.20.En, 27.80.+w