Grabbing Your Ear: Rapid Auditory–Somatosensory Multisensory Interactions in Low-level Sensory Cortices Are Not Constrained by Stimulus Alignment

Perceptual representations are built through multisensory interactions underpinned by dense anatomical and functional neural networks that interconnect primary and associative cortical areas. There is compelling evidence that primary sensory cortical areas do not work in segregation, but play a role in early processes of multisensory integration. In this chapter, we firstly review previous and recent literature showing how multimodal interactions between primary cortices may contribute to refining perceptual representations. Secondly, we discuss findings providing evidence that, following peripheral damage to a sensory system, multimodal integration may promote sensory substitution in deprived cortical areas and favor compensatory plasticity in the spared sensory cortices.

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Resolving multisensory and attentional influences across cortical depth in sensory cortices

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.46856 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Remi Gau ◽

Pierre-Louis Bazin ◽

Robert Trampel ◽

Robert Turner ◽

Uta Noppeney

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Visual Stimulation ◽

Central Visual Field ◽

Activation Patterns ◽

Multisensory Interactions ◽

Sensory Cortices ◽

Visual Cortices ◽

Audiovisual Stimuli ◽

Auditory Cortices ◽

The Brain

In our environment, our senses are bombarded with a myriad of signals, only a subset of which is relevant for our goals. Using sub-millimeter-resolution fMRI at 7T, we resolved BOLD-response and activation patterns across cortical depth in early sensory cortices to auditory, visual and audiovisual stimuli under auditory or visual attention. In visual cortices, auditory stimulation induced widespread inhibition irrespective of attention, whereas auditory relative to visual attention suppressed mainly central visual field representations. In auditory cortices, visual stimulation suppressed activations, but amplified responses to concurrent auditory stimuli, in a patchy topography. Critically, multisensory interactions in auditory cortices were stronger in deeper laminae, while attentional influences were greatest at the surface. These distinct depth-dependent profiles suggest that multisensory and attentional mechanisms regulate sensory processing via partly distinct circuitries. Our findings are crucial for understanding how the brain regulates information flow across senses to interact with our complex multisensory world.

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Contextual control of audiovisual integration in low-level sensory cortices

Multisensory Research ◽

10.1163/22134808-000s0079 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 26 (1-2) ◽

pp. 109 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Charles E. Schroeder ◽

Bradley S. Peterson ◽

Nienke M. van Atteveldt

Keyword(s):

Audiovisual Integration ◽

Contextual Control ◽

Low Level ◽

Sensory Cortices

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Low-level auditory and visual features can be decoded across early sensory cortices.

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/16.12.581 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (12) ◽

pp. 581

Author(s):

JOO HUANG TAN ◽

PO-JANG HSIEH

Keyword(s):

Visual Features ◽

Low Level ◽

Sensory Cortices

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Resolving multisensory and attentional influences across cortical depth in sensory cortices

10.1101/548933 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Remi Gau ◽

Pierre-Louis Bazin ◽

Robert Trampel ◽

Robert Turner ◽

Uta Noppeney

Keyword(s):

Visual Attention ◽

Visual Stimulation ◽

Central Visual Field ◽

Activation Patterns ◽

Multisensory Interactions ◽

Sensory Cortices ◽

Visual Cortices ◽

Audiovisual Stimuli ◽

Auditory Cortices ◽

The Brain

ABSTRACTIn our environment our senses are bombarded with a myriad of signals, only a subset of which is relevant for our goals. Using sub-millimeter-resolution fMRI at 7T we resolved BOLD-response and activation patterns across cortical depth in early sensory cortices to auditory, visual and audiovisual stimuli under auditory or visual attention. In visual cortices, auditory stimulation induced widespread inhibition irrespective of attention, whereas auditory relative to visual attention suppressed mainly central visual field representations. In auditory cortices, visual stimulation suppressed activations, but amplified responses to concurrent auditory stimuli, in a patchy topography. Critically, multisensory interactions in auditory cortices were stronger in deeper laminae, while attentional influences were greatest at the surface. These distinct depth-dependent profiles suggest that multisensory and attentional mechanisms regulate sensory processing via partly distinct circuitries. Our findings are crucial for understanding how the brain regulates information flow across senses to interact with our complex multisensory world.

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Early, low-level auditory-somatosensory multisensory interactions impact reaction time speed

Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/neuro.07.002.2009 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Holger F. Sperdin

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Low Level ◽

Multisensory Interactions

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Pure tones modulate the representation of orientation and direction in the primary visual cortex

10.1101/531194 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

John P McClure ◽

Pierre-Olivier Polack

Keyword(s):

Visual Cortex ◽

Primary Visual Cortex ◽

Visual Stimulus ◽

Population Level ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Neuronal Population ◽

Direction Selectivity ◽

Multimodal Integration ◽

Multisensory Interactions ◽

Sensory Cortices

Multimodal sensory integration facilitates the generation of a unified and coherent perception of the environment. It is now well established that unimodal sensory perceptions, such as vision, are improved in multisensory contexts. While multimodal integration is primarily performed by dedicated multisensory brain regions such as the association cortices or the superior colliculus, recent studies have shown that multisensory interactions also occur in primary sensory cortices. In particular, sounds were shown to modulate the responses of neurons located in layers 2/3 (L2/3) of the mouse primary visual cortex (V1). Yet, the net effect of sound modulation at the V1 population level remained unclear. Here, we performed two-photon calcium imaging in awake mice to compare the representation of the orientation and the direction of drifting gratings by V1 L2/3 neurons in unimodal (visual only) or multi-modal (audiovisual) conditions. We found that sound modulation depended on the tuning properties (orientation and direction selectivity) and response amplitudes of V1 L2/3 neurons. Sounds potentiated the responses of neurons that were highly tuned to the cue orientation and direction but weakly active in the unimodal context, following the principle of inverse effectiveness of multimodal integration. Moreover, sound suppressed the responses of neurons untuned for the orientation and/or the direction of the visual cue. Altogether, sound modulation improved the representation of the orientation and direction of the visual stimulus in V1 L2/3. Namely, visual stimuli presented with auditory stimuli recruited a neuronal population better tuned to the visual stimulus orientation and direction than when presented alone.

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Low-level, prediction-based sensory and motor processes are unimpaired in Autism

10.1101/2020.09.01.277160 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Johanna Finnemann ◽

Kate Plaisted-Grant ◽

James Moore ◽

Christoph Teufel ◽

Paul Fletcher

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum ◽

Predictive Processing ◽

Autism Spectrum Conditions ◽

Probabilistic Prediction ◽

Low Level ◽

Force Matching ◽

Sensory Cortices ◽

Sensory Attenuation ◽

Prior Experiences ◽

The Brain

AbstractA new promising account of human brain function suggests that sensory cortices try to optimise information processing via predictions that are based on prior experiences. The brain is thus likened to a probabilistic prediction machine. There has been a growing – though inconsistent – literature to suggest that features of autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) are associated with a deficit in modelling the world through such prediction-based inference. However empirical evidence for differences in low-level sensorimotor predictions in autism is still lacking. One approach to examining predictive processing in the sensorimotor domain is in the context of self-generated (predictable) as opposed to externally-generated (less predictable) effects. We employed two complementary tasks – force-matching and intentional binding – which examine self-versus externally-generated action effects in terms of sensory attenuation and attentional binding respectively in adults with and without autism. The results show that autism was associated with normal levels of sensory attenuation of internally-generated force and with unaltered temporal attraction of voluntary actions and their outcomes. Thus, our results do not support a general deficit in predictive processing in autism.

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