title: Sounds activate visual cortex and improve visual discrimination.
abstract: A recent study in humans (McDonald et al., 2013) found that peripheral, task-irrelevant sounds activated contralateral visual cortex automatically as revealed by an auditory-evoked contralateral occipital positivity (ACOP) recorded from the scalp. The present study investigated the functional significance of this cross-modal activation of visual cortex, in particular whether the sound-evoked ACOP is predictive of improved perceptual processing of a subsequent visual target. A trial-by-trial analysis showed that the ACOP amplitude was markedly larger preceding correct than incorrect pattern discriminations of visual targets that were colocalized with the preceding sound. Dipole modeling of the scalp topography of the ACOP localized its neural generators to the ventrolateral extrastriate visual cortex. These results provide direct evidence that the cross-modal activation of contralateral visual cortex by a spatially nonpredictive but salient sound facilitates the discriminative processing of a subsequent visual target event at the location of the sound. Recordings of event-related potentials to the targets support the hypothesis that the ACOP is a neural consequence of the automatic orienting of visual attention to the location of the sound.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, School of Education, SooChow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China, Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0608, fengwfly@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wenfeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Vision Sciences Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Viola S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Störmer
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0608, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962, and.
authors.forename: Antigona
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0608.
authors.forename: Steven A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hillyard
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013016:Sound; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ACOP; ERP; sound; visual cortex; visual discrimination