title: Steady-state evoked potentials as an index of multisensory temporal binding.
abstract: Temporal congruency promotes perceptual binding of multisensory inputs. Here, we used EEG frequency-tagging to track cortical activities elicited by auditory and visual inputs separately, in the form of steady-state evoked potentials (SS-EPs). We tested whether SS-EPs could reveal a dynamic coupling of cortical activities related to the binding of auditory and visual inputs conveying synchronous vs. non-synchronous temporal periodicities, or beats. The temporally congruent audiovisual condition elicited markedly enhanced auditory and visual SS-EPs, as compared to the incongruent condition. Furthermore, an increased inter-trial phase coherence of both SS-EPs was observed in that condition. Taken together, these observations indicate that temporal congruency enhances the processing of multisensory inputs at sensory-specific stages of cortical processing, possibly through a dynamic binding by synchrony of the elicited activities and/or improved dynamic attending. Moreover, we show that EEG frequency-tagging with SS-EPs constitutes an effective tool to explore the neural dynamics of multisensory integration in the human brain.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience (Ions), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nozaradan
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Peretz
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mouraux
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult