Citation

Jaekl PM, Soto-Faraco S. Brain Res. 2010; 1366: 85-92.

Affiliation

Centre for Brain and Cognition, Dept. of Information Technology and Communications, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Roc Boronat 138, 08018 Barcelona, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, International Brain Research Organization, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.brainres.2010.10.012

PMID

20940003

Abstract

Although it has been previously reported that audio-visual integration can modulate performance on some visual tasks, multisensory interactions have not been explicitly assessed in the context of different visual processing pathways. In the present study we test auditory influences on visual processing employing a psychophysical paradigm that reveals distinct spatial contrast signatures of magnocellular and parvocellular visual pathways. We found that contrast thresholds are reduced when noninformative sounds are presented with transient, low-frequency Gabor-patch stimuli and thus favour the M- system. In contrast, visual thresholds are unaffected by concurrent sounds when detection is primarily attributed to P- pathway processing. These results demonstrate that the visual detection enhancement resulting from multisensory integration is mainly articulated by the magnocellular system, which is most sensitive at low spatial frequencies. Such enhancement may subserve stimulus-driven processes including the orientation of spatial attention and fast, automatic ocular and motor responses. This dissociation helps explain discrepancies between the results of previous studies investigating visual enhancement by sounds.

Language: en