ePrints

Multisensory interactions in primate auditory cortex: fMRI and electrophysiology

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Christopher Petkov

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that multisensory integration does not only occur in higher association cortices but also at early stages of auditory processing, possibly in primary or secondary auditory cortex. Support for such early multisensory influences comes from functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments in humans and monkeys. However we argue that the current understanding of neurovascular coupling and of the neuronal basis underlying the imaging signal does not permit the direct extrapolation from imaging data to properties of neurons in the same region. While imaging can guide subsequent electrophysiological studies, only these can determine whether and how neurons in auditory cortices combine information from multiple modalities. Indeed, electrophysiological studies only partly confirm the findings from imaging studies. While recordings of field potentials reveal strong influences of visual or somatosensory stimulation on synaptic activity even in primary auditory cortex, single unit studies find only a small minority of neurons as being influenced by non-acoustic stimuli. We propose the analysis of the information coding properties of individual neurons as one way to quantitatively determine whether the representation of our acoustic environment in (primary) auditory cortex indeed benefits from multisensory input.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Kayser C, Petkov CI, Logothetis NK

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Hearing Research

Year: 2009

Volume: 258

Issue: 1-2

Pages: 80-88

ISSN (print): 0378-5955

ISSN (electronic): 1878-5891

Publisher: Elsevier BV

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2009.02.011

DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2009.02.011

Altmetrics

Share