Neural substrates of perceptual enhancement by cross-modal spatial attention.

Full Abstract

Orienting attention involuntarily to the location of a sudden sound improves perception of subsequent visual stimuli that appear nearby. The neural substrates of this cross-modal attention effect were investigated by recording event-related potentials to the visual stimuli using a dense electrode array and localizing their brain sources through inverse dipole modeling. A spatially nonpredictive auditory precue modulated visual-evoked neural activity first in the superior temporal cortex at 120-140 msec and then in the ventral occipital cortex of the fusiform gyrus 15-25 msec later. This spatio-temporal sequence of brain activity suggests that enhanced visual perception produced by the cross-modal orienting of spatial attention results from neural feedback from the multimodal superior temporal cortex to the visual cortex of the ventral processing stream.

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Author information

Author/s: McDonald, John J (JJ); Teder-Sälejärvi, Wolfgang A (WA); Di Russo, Francesco (F); Hillyard, Steven A (SA);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. jmcd(-atsign-)sfu.ca

Grants: MH 25594 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Journal of cognitive neuroscience (J Cogn Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jan; vol 15 (issue 1) : pp 10-9

Dates: Created 2003/02/19; Completed 2003/03/26; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12590839, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Attention - physiology
Brain Mapping
Dominance, Cerebral
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology
Evoked Potentials, Visual - physiology
Female

Humans
Male
Masks
Orientation - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Space Perception
Spatial Behavior
Temporal Lobe - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology

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