Sounds Activate Visual Cortex and Improve Visual Discrimination

Wenfeng Feng · Viola S. Störmer · Antı́gona Martı́nez · John J. McDonald · Steven A. Hillyard

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Multisensory perception and integration Visual perception and processing mechanisms Tactile and Sensory Interactions

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.

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References

2004Crossmodal Space and Crossmodal Attention 2002Enhancement of visual perception by crossmodal visuo-auditory interaction 2012Sounds Reset Rhythms of Visual Cortex and Corresponding Human Visual Perception 2009Cross-modal cueing of attention alters appearance and early cortical processing of visual stimuli 2007Occipital Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Has Opposing Effects on Visual and Auditory Stimulus Detection: Implications for Multisensory Interactions 2009Preperceptual and Stimulus-Selective Enhancement of Low-Level Human Visual Cortex Excitability by Sounds 2003Neural Substrates of Perceptual Enhancement by Cross-Modal Spatial Attention 2005Neural basis of auditory-induced shifts in visual time-order perception

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2015The discovery of human auditory–motor entrainment and its role in the development of neurologic music therapy 2019The circuit architecture of cortical multisensory processing: Distinct functions jointly operating within a common anatomical network 2017Involuntary orienting of attention to a sound desynchronizes the occipital alpha rhythm and improves visual perception 2015Cross-modal orienting of visual attention

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