title: Early integration processing between faces and vowel sounds in human brain: an MEG investigation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Unconscious fast integration of face and voice information is a crucial brain function necessary for communicating effectively with others. Here, we investigated for evidence of rapid face-voice integration in the auditory cortex.
  
  
  METHODS
  Magnetic fields (P50m and N100m) evoked by visual stimuli (V), auditory stimuli (A) and audiovisual stimuli (VA), i.e. by face, vowel and simultaneous vowel-face stimuli, were recorded in 22 healthy subjects. Magnetoencephalographic data from 28 channels around bilateral auditory cortices were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both hemispheres, AV - V showed significantly larger P50m amplitudes than A. Additionally, compared with A, the N100m amplitudes and dipole moments of AV - V were significantly smaller in the left hemisphere, but not in the right hemisphere.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Differential changes in P50m (bilateral) and N100m (left hemisphere) that occur when V (faces) are associated with A (vowel sounds) indicate that AV (face-voice) integration occurs in early processing, likely enabling us to communicate effectively in our lives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Itta
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Yoji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Naotoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohara
authors.forename: Shogo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Takefumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Rikako
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tsuchimoto
authors.forename: Shigenobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kanba
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Onitsuka
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*