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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on February 14, 2008
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn007
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Role of the Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus in Audiovisual Processing

Julia Hocking1,2 and Cathy J. Price1

1 Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, WC1N 3BG UK, 2 Centre for Magnetic Resonance, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 4072

Address correspondence to Julia Hocking, PhD, Centre for Magnetic Resonance, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia 4072. Email: julia.hocking{at}cmr.uq.edu.au.

In this study we investigate previous claims that a region in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is more activated by audiovisual than unimodal processing. First, we compare audiovisual to visual–visual and auditory–auditory conceptual matching using auditory or visual object names that are paired with pictures of objects or their environmental sounds. Second, we compare congruent and incongruent audiovisual trials when presentation is simultaneous or sequential. Third, we compare audiovisual stimuli that are either verbal (auditory and visual words) or nonverbal (pictures of objects and their associated sounds). The results demonstrate that, when task, attention, and stimuli are controlled, pSTS activation for audiovisual conceptual matching is 1) identical to that observed for intramodal conceptual matching, 2) greater for incongruent than congruent trials when auditory and visual stimuli are simultaneously presented, and 3) identical for verbal and nonverbal stimuli. These results are not consistent with previous claims that pSTS activation reflects the active formation of an integrated audiovisual representation. After a discussion of the stimulus and task factors that modulate activation, we conclude that, when stimulus input, task, and attention are controlled, pSTS is part of a distributed set of regions involved in conceptual matching, irrespective of whether the stimuli are audiovisual, auditory–auditory or visual–visual.

Key Words: amodal • audiovisual binding • conceptual integration • congruency • crossmodal


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