Visual enhancement of the information representation in auditory cortex

TY - JOUR

T1 - Visual enhancement of the information representation in auditory cortex

AU - Kayser, Christoph

AU - Logothetis, Nikos K

AU - Panzeri, Stefano

N1 - Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2010/1/12

Y1 - 2010/1/12

N2 - Combining information across different sensory modalities can greatly facilitate our ability to detect, discriminate, or recognize sensory stimuli. Although this process of sensory integration has usually been attributed to classical association cortices, recent work has demonstrated that neuronal activity in early sensory cortices can also be influenced by cross-modal inputs. Here we demonstrate that such "early" multisensory influences enhance the information carried by neurons about multisensory stimuli. By recording in auditory cortex of alert monkeys watching naturalistic audiovisual stimuli, we quantified the effect of visual influences on the trial-to-trial response variability and on the amount of information carried by neural responses. We found that firing rates and precisely timed spike patterns of individual units became more reliable across trials and time when multisensory stimuli were presented, leading to greater encoded stimulus information. Importantly, this multisensory information enhancement was much reduced when the visual stimulus did not match the sound. These results demonstrate that multisensory influences enhance information processing already at early stages in cortex, suggesting that sensory integration is a distributed process, commencing in lower sensory areas and continuing in higher association cortices.

AB - Combining information across different sensory modalities can greatly facilitate our ability to detect, discriminate, or recognize sensory stimuli. Although this process of sensory integration has usually been attributed to classical association cortices, recent work has demonstrated that neuronal activity in early sensory cortices can also be influenced by cross-modal inputs. Here we demonstrate that such "early" multisensory influences enhance the information carried by neurons about multisensory stimuli. By recording in auditory cortex of alert monkeys watching naturalistic audiovisual stimuli, we quantified the effect of visual influences on the trial-to-trial response variability and on the amount of information carried by neural responses. We found that firing rates and precisely timed spike patterns of individual units became more reliable across trials and time when multisensory stimuli were presented, leading to greater encoded stimulus information. Importantly, this multisensory information enhancement was much reduced when the visual stimulus did not match the sound. These results demonstrate that multisensory influences enhance information processing already at early stages in cortex, suggesting that sensory integration is a distributed process, commencing in lower sensory areas and continuing in higher association cortices.

KW - Acoustic Stimulation

KW - Animals

KW - Auditory Cortex/physiology

KW - Auditory Perception/physiology

KW - Evoked Potentials, Auditory

KW - Evoked Potentials, Visual

KW - Macaca mulatta/physiology

KW - Models, Neurological

KW - Neurons/physiology

KW - Photic Stimulation

KW - Visual Perception/physiology

U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.068

DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.068

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 20036538

VL - 20

SP - 19

EP - 24

JO - CURR BIOL

JF - CURR BIOL

SN - 0960-9822

IS - 1

ER -