The effect of visual reliability on auditory-visual integration: an event-related potential study.
To investigate the neural mechanisms of auditory-visual integration, we recorded event-related potentials during a word-identification task, in which the stimulus was presented in the auditory (A), visual (V), and in the auditory-visual (AV) modalities. The reliability of the visual information varied at the high-reliability (VH) and low-reliability (VL) levels in both the V and AV presentations. The modulation of sensory integrations owing to the variation of cue reliability was revealed in the format of the double-difference waveform generated by subtracting the difference waveform AVL-(A+VL) from the difference waveform AVH-(A+VH). The results demonstrated (i) the early modulation of the activity in the auditory and visual cortex; (ii) subsequent spatial-temporal sequence of activities mostly occurred in multisensory areas; and (iii) the timing of final outputs of AV integration at around 370-410 ms poststimulus.
Liu
Qiang
Q
Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Qiu
Jiang
J
Chen
Antao
A
Yang
Juan
J
Zhang
Qinglin
Q
Sun
Hong-Jin
HJ
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*