title: Subcortical, modality-specific pathways contribute to multisensory processing in humans.
abstract: Oftentimes, we perceive our environment by integrating information across multiple senses. Recent studies suggest that such integration occurs at much earlier processing stages than once thought possible, including in thalamic nuclei and putatively unisensory cortical brain regions. Here, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and an audiovisual integration task to test the hypothesis that anatomical connections between sensory-related subcortical structures and sensory cortical areas govern multisensory processing in humans. Twenty-five subjects (mean age 22 years, 22 females) participated in the study. In line with our hypothesis, we show that estimated strength of white-matter connections between the first relay station in the auditory processing stream (the cochlear nucleus), the auditory thalamus, and primary auditory cortex predicted one's ability to combine auditory and visual information in a visual search task. This finding supports a growing body of work that indicates that subcortical sensory pathways do not only feed forward unisensory information to the cortex, and suggests that anatomical brain connectivity contributes to multisensory processing ability in humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: van den Brink
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1081XA, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M X
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van der Burg
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, B-9000, Belgium.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Talsma
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1081XA, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Vissers
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1081XA, The Netherlands h.a.slagter@uva.nl.
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Slagter
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D004585:Electrooculography; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D066127:White Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: brain; diffusion tensor imaging; multisensory; multisensory integration; structural connectivity