RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Multisensory Integration Shortens Physiological Response Latencies
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 5879
OP 5884
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4986-06.2007
VO 27
IS 22
A1 Rowland, Benjamin A.
A1 Quessy, Stephan
A1 Stanford, Terrence R.
A1 Stein, Barry E.
YR 2007
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/22/5879.abstract
AB 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.