title: Selective influences of cross-modal spatial-cues on preattentive auditory processing: a whole-head magnetoencephalography study.
abstract: The processing streams of the various sensory modalities are known to interact within the central nervous system. These interactions differ depending on the level of stimulus representation and attention. The current study focused on cross-sensory influences on stimulus change detection during unattended auditory processing. We employed an oddball paradigm to assess cortical processing using whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 20 volunteers. While subjects performed distraction tasks of varying difficulties, auditory duration deviants were applied randomly to the left or the right ear preceded (200-400 ms) by oculomotor, static visual, or flow field co-stimulation at either side. Mismatch fields were recorded over both hemispheres. Changes in gaze direction and static visual stimuli elicited the most reliable enhancement of deviance detection at the same side (most prominent at the right auditory cortex). Under both conditions, the lateralized unattended and unpredictive pre-cues acted analogously to shifts in selective attention, but were not reduced by attentional load. Thus, the early cognitive representation of sounds seems to reflect automatic cross-modal interference. Preattentive multisensory integration may provide the neuronal basis for orienting reactions to objects in space and thus for voluntary control of selective attention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. KMathiak@UKAachen.de
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mathiak
authors.forename: Ingo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hertrich
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zvyagintsev
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lutzenberger
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ackermann
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006257:Head / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009801:Oculomotor Muscles / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields