Somato-Auditory Convergence: Supratemporal Plane

直到最近，人们才相信，多感觉统合开始于高级皮质区域，在每个感觉系统中经过长时间的分层处理。前一个项目期间的结果反驳了这一观点。驱动我们竞争更新应用的假设将低级多感觉处理与发生在高阶多感觉区域的多感觉处理结合起来。低级综合操作的普遍性是惊人的。最近的研究结果显示A1和V1之间有直接的解剖学联系，对听觉处理有大量的低水平影响，其中包括非听觉输入对听觉皮层中正在进行的神经元活动模式的显著控制能力。这是非常重要的，因为正在进行的神经元活动设置了处理传入的感觉输入的环境。我们的初步数据对环境被控制的方式以及环境反过来控制感官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层中多感觉相互作用的机制，以及它们对该区域听觉功能的贡献。我们的具体目标是：

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.