title: Visuohaptic convergence in a corticocerebellar network.
abstract: The processing of visual and haptic inputs, occurring either separately or jointly, is crucial for everyday-life object recognition, and has been a focus of recent neuroimaging research. Previously, visuohaptic convergence has been mostly investigated with matching-task paradigms. However, much less is known about visuohaptic convergence in the absence of additional task demands. We conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments in which subjects actively touched and/or viewed unfamiliar object stimuli without any additional task demands. In addition, we performed two control experiments with audiovisual and audiohaptic stimulation to examine the specificity of the observed visuohaptic convergence effects. We found robust visuohaptic convergence in bilateral lateral occipital cortex and anterior cerebellum. In contrast, neither the anterior cerebellum nor the lateral occipital cortex showed any involvement in audiovisual or audiohaptic convergence, indicating that multisensory convergence in these regions is specifically geared to visual and haptic inputs. These data suggest that in humans the lateral occipital cortex and the anterior cerebellum play an important role in visuohaptic processing even in the absence of additional task demands.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Goethe-University, Heinrich-Hoffmann-Strasse 10, D-60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. M.J.Naumer@med.uni-frankfurt.de
authors.forename: Marcus J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Naumer
authors.forename: Leonie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ratz
authors.forename: Yavor
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yalachkov
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Polony
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Doehrmann
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: van de Ven
authors.forename: Notger G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Grit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hein
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult