title: Effect of mechanical tactile noise on amplitude of visual evoked potentials: multisensory stochastic resonance.
abstract: The present investigation documents the electrophysiological occurrence of multisensory stochastic resonance in the human visual pathway elicited by tactile noise. We define multisensory stochastic resonance of brain evoked potentials as the phenomenon in which an intermediate level of input noise of one sensory modality enhances the brain evoked response of another sensory modality. Here we examined this phenomenon in visual evoked potentials (VEPs) modulated by the addition of tactile noise. Specifically, we examined whether a particular level of mechanical Gaussian noise applied to the index finger can improve the amplitude of the VEP. We compared the amplitude of the positive P100 VEP component between zero noise (ZN), optimal noise (ON), and high mechanical noise (HN). The data disclosed an inverted U-like graph for all the subjects, thus demonstrating the occurrence of a multisensory stochastic resonance in the P100 VEP.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Psicología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico;
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3054-4944
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Méndez-Balbuena
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico;
authors.forename: Nayeli
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Huidobro
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico;
authors.forename: Mayte
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico;
authors.forename: Amira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany;
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trenado
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Psicología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico;
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Quintanar
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Trastornos del Movimiento y Sueño (TMS), Hospital General Dr. Manuel Gea González/IFC-UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico; and.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Arias-Carrión
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Rumyana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kristeva
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico; elias.manjarrez@correo.buap.mx.
authors.forename: Elias
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3277-0101
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manjarrez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cross-modal stochastic resonance; multisensory stochastic resonance; stochastic resonance; tactile noise; visual