Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on June 2, 2006
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl007
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/4/962    most recent
bhl007v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by van Atteveldt, N. M.
Right arrow Articles by Goebel, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by van Atteveldt, N. M.
Right arrow Articles by Goebel, R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

The Effect of Temporal Asynchrony on the Multisensory Integration of Letters and Speech Sounds

Nienke M. van Atteveldt 1 *, Elia Formisano 1, Leo Blomert 1, and Rainer Goebel 2

1 Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Maastricht, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
2 Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Maastricht, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands; F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nienke M. van Atteveldt, E-mail: N.vanAtteveldt{at}psychology.unimaas.nl


  Abstract

Temporal proximity is a critical determinant for cross-modal integration by multisensory neurons. Information content may serve as an additional binding factor for more complex or less natural multisensory information. Letters and speech sounds, which form the basis of literacy acquisition, are not naturally related but associated through explicit learning. We investigated the relative importance of temporal proximity and information content on the integration of letters and speech sounds by manipulating both factors within the same functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design. The results reveal significant interactions between temporal proximity and content congruency in anterior and posterior auditory association cortex, indicating that temporal synchrony is critical for the integration of letters and speech sounds. The temporal profiles for multisensory integration in the auditory association cortex resemble those demonstrated for single multisensory neurons in different brain structures and animal species. This similarity suggests that basic neural integration rules apply to the binding of multisensory information that is not naturally related but overlearned during literacy acquisition. Furthermore, the present study shows the suitability of fMRI to study temporal aspects of multisensory neural processing.

Keywords: audiovisual; auditory cortex; fMRI; STS; temporal proximity.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
M. J. Naumer, O. Doehrmann, N. G. Muller, L. Muckli, J. Kaiser, and G. Hein
Cortical Plasticity of Audio-Visual Object Representations
Cereb Cortex, July 1, 2009; 19(7): 1641 - 1653.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Cereb CortexHome page
J. Hocking and C. J. Price
The Role of the Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus in Audiovisual Processing
Cereb Cortex, October 1, 2008; 18(10): 2439 - 2449.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
G. F. Alpert, G. Hein, N. Tsai, M. J. Naumer, and R. T. Knight
Temporal Characteristics of Audiovisual Information Processing
J. Neurosci., May 14, 2008; 28(20): 5344 - 5349.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Neurosci.Home page
G. Hein, O. Doehrmann, N. G. Muller, J. Kaiser, L. Muckli, and M. J. Naumer
Object Familiarity and Semantic Congruency Modulate Responses in Cortical Audiovisual Integration Areas
J. Neurosci., July 25, 2007; 27(30): 7881 - 7887.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.