Somato-Auditory Convergence: Supratemporal Plane

直到最近，人们还认为，在每个单一感觉系统中经过长期的分层处理后，多感觉整合始于高水平的皮质区域。先前项目期的结果驳斥了这一观点。驱动我们竞争性更新应用的假说将低级多感官处理与发生在较高阶多感官区域的处理结合在一起。低水平一体化运营的普遍程度令人震惊。在最近的发现中，显示了A1和V1之间的直接解剖学联系，以及对听觉处理的大量低水平影响，其中包括非听觉输入控制听觉皮质中正在进行的神经元活动模式的显著能力。这从根本上意义重大，因为正在进行的神经元活动设定了处理传入感觉输入的背景。我们的初步数据对语境的控制方式以及它反过来控制感觉处理的方式做出了几个关键预测。我们的长期目标是确定听觉皮质多感官相互作用的机制，以及它们对该区域听觉功能的贡献。我们的具体目标是： 1.巩固和扩展我们对听觉皮层视觉和体感输入的功能特性、区域分布和解剖机制的认识。 2.确定持续振荡动力学如何控制听觉皮质中的单感觉(如听觉)和多感觉整合。 3.研究注意和辨别对听觉皮层动力学的影响。 由于我们独特的方法组合，我们可以弥合尖锐的发现之间的差距 来自体外细胞水平的实验和电磁和血流动力学注意到的影响 人体成像研究。

Until recently, it was believed that multisensory integration begins in high-level cortical regions, after protracted hierarchical processing within each unisensory system. Results in the prior project period refute this view. The hypothesis driving our competing renewal application incorporates low-level multisensory processing with that occurring in higher-order multisensory regions. The pervasiveness of low-level integrative operations is staggering. Among recent findings showing direct anatomical connections between A1 and V1, and a wealth of low-level influences on auditory processing, is the remarkable ability of non-auditory inputs to control the pattern of ongoing neuronal activity in auditory cortex. This is fundamentally significant because ongoing neuronal activity sets the context within which incoming sensory inputs are processed. Our preliminary data make several key predictions about the manner in which context is controlled, and about the way that it in turn controls sensory processing. Our long-term goal is to define the mechanisms of multisensory interactions in auditory cortex, and their contributions to the auditory functions of the region. Our specific aims are: 1. To consolidate and extend our understanding of the functional properties, areal distribution and anatomical mechanisms of visual, as well as somatosensory inputs in auditory cortex. 2. To determine how ongoing oscillatory dynamics control the both unisensory (e.g., auditory) and multisensory integration in auditory cortex. 3. To investigate how auditory cortical dynamics are addressed by attention and discrimination. Because of our unique combination of methods we can bridge the gap between incisive findings from in-vitro cellular-level experiments and effects noted by electromagnetic and hemodynamic imaging studies in humans.