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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 30, 2007, 27(22):5879-5884; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4986-06.2007

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Brief Communications
Multisensory Integration Shortens Physiological Response Latencies

Benjamin A. Rowland,¹ Stephan Quessy,² Terrence R. Stanford,¹ and Barry E. Stein¹

¹Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157, and ²School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642

Correspondence should be addressed to Benjamin A. Rowland, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 1 Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157. Email: browland{at}wfubmc.edu

Individual superior colliculus (SC) neurons integrate information from multiple sensory sources to enhance their physiological response. The response of an SC neuron to a cross-modal stimulus combination can not only exceed the best component unisensory response but can also exceed their arithmetic sum (i.e., superadditivity). The present experiments were designed to investigate the temporal profile of multisensory integration in this model system. We found that cross-modal stimuli frequently shortened physiological response latencies (mean shift, 6.2 ms) and that response enhancement was greatest in the initial phase of the response (the phenomenon of initial response enhancement). The vast majority of the responses studied evidenced superadditive computations, most often at the beginning of the multisensory response.

Key words: multisensory; cross-modal; superior colliculus; vision; audition; latency

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Received Nov. 16, 2006; revised April 17, 2007; accepted April 20, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Benjamin A. Rowland, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 1 Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157. Email: browland{at}wfubmc.edu

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. M. Rodgers, A. M. Benison, A. Klein, and D. S. Barth Auditory, Somatosensory, and Multisensory Insular Cortex in the Rat Cereb Cortex, December 1, 2008; 18(12): 2941 - 2951. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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