The symmetrical brain coral forms smooth flat plates or massive hemispherical domes up to 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) in diameter.

The surface is covered with interlinking convoluted valleys in which the polyps sit in cup-shaped depressions known as corallites.

[4][5] The symmetrical brain coral grows in shallow parts of the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Florida and Texas.

[5] The fossilised remains of Pseudodiploria strigosa have been found alongside those of other massive corals, Pseudodiploria clivosa, Siderastrea siderea and Solenastrea bouroni, in marine deposits in Río Grande de Manatí, Puerto Rico that date back to the Pleistocene.

In the day time the polyps retract inside their corallites but at night they extend their ring of tentacles and feed on zooplankton.