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J Neurophysiol (February 28, 2007). doi:10.1152/jn.00018.2007
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00018.2007v1
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Submitted on January 5, 2007
Accepted on February 26, 2007

Multisensory versus Unisensory Integration: Contrasting Modes in the Superior Colliculus

Juan Carlos Alvarado1*, John William Vaughan1, Terrence R Stanford1, and Barry E. Stein1

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

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jalvarad{at}wfubmc.edu.

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 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 in the brain for integrating sensory information, in one case (unisensory) reflecting the inherent characteristics of the individual sense and in the other (multisensory), unique supramodal characteristics designed to enhance the salience of the initiating event.




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