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Multisensory Versus Unisensory Integration: Contrasting Modes in the Superior Colliculus

Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Submitted 5 January 2007; accepted in final form 26 February 2007

The present study suggests that the neural computations used to integrate information from different senses are distinct from those used to integrate information from within the same sense. Using superior colliculus neurons as a model, it was found that multisensory integration of cross-modal stimulus combinations yielded responses that were significantly greater than those evoked by the best component stimulus. In contrast, unisensory integration of within-modal stimulus pairs yielded responses that were similar to or less than those evoked by the best component stimulus. This difference is exemplified by the disproportionate representations of superadditive responses during multisensory integration and the predominance of subadditive responses during unisensory integration. These observations suggest that different rules have evolved for integrating sensory information, one (unisensory) reflecting the inherent characteristics of the individual sense and, the other (multisensory), unique supramodal characteristics designed to enhance the salience of the initiating event.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. Vachon-Presseau and L. Henry The Influences of Associative Cortices on Cross-Modal Integration in the Superior Colliculus J. Neurosci., February 20, 2008; 28(8): 1787 - 1788. [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. C. Alvarado, T. R. Stanford, J. W. Vaughan, and B. E. Stein Cortex Mediates Multisensory But Not Unisensory Integration in Superior Colliculus J. Neurosci., November 21, 2007; 27(47): 12775 - 12786. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]