Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex

Auditory and visual signals often occur together, and the two sensory channels are known to infl uence each other to facilitate perception. The neural basis of this integration is not well understood, although other forms of multisensory infl uences have been shown to occur at surprisingly early sta...

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Main Authors: Kari L Hoffman, Asif A Ghazanfar, Isabel Gauthier, Nikos K Logothetis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2008-03-01
Series:Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.06.002.2007/full
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author Kari L Hoffman
Kari L Hoffman
Asif A Ghazanfar
Isabel Gauthier
Nikos K Logothetis
Nikos K Logothetis
Nikos K Logothetis
author_facet Kari L Hoffman
Kari L Hoffman
Asif A Ghazanfar
Isabel Gauthier
Nikos K Logothetis
Nikos K Logothetis
Nikos K Logothetis
author_sort Kari L Hoffman
collection DOAJ
description Auditory and visual signals often occur together, and the two sensory channels are known to infl uence each other to facilitate perception. The neural basis of this integration is not well understood, although other forms of multisensory infl uences have been shown to occur at surprisingly early stages of processing in cortex. Primary visual cortex neurons can show frequency-tuning to auditory stimuli, and auditory cortex responds selectively to certain somatosensory stimuli, supporting the possibility that complex visual signals may modulate early stages of auditory processing. To elucidate which auditory regions, if any, are responsive to complex visual stimuli, we recorded from auditory cortex and the superior temporal sulcus while presenting visual stimuli consisting of various objects, neutral faces, and facial expressions generated during vocalization. Both objects and conspecifi c faces elicited robust fi eld potential responses in auditory cortex sites, but the responses varied by category: both neutral and vocalizing faces had a highly consistent negative component (N100) followed by a broader positive component (P180) whereas object responses were more variable in time and shape, but could be discriminated consistently from the responses to faces. The face response did not vary within the face category, i.e., for expressive vs. neutral face stimuli. The presence of responses for both objects and neutral faces suggests that auditory cortex receives highly informative visual input that is not restricted to those stimuli associated with auditory components. These results reveal selectivity for complex visual stimuli in a brain region conventionally described as non-visual unisensory cortex.
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spelling doaj.art-74f040449c104662b8bb3881d56f92672022-12-21T23:52:17ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience1662-51372008-03-01210.3389/neuro.06.002.200795Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortexKari L Hoffman0Kari L Hoffman1Asif A Ghazanfar2Isabel Gauthier3Nikos K Logothetis4Nikos K Logothetis5Nikos K Logothetis6Max Planck Institute for Biological CyberneticsCenter for Vision Research, Department of Psychology, York UniversityPrinceton UniversityNeuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt UniversityMax Planck Institute for Biological CyberneticsUniversity of ManchesterUniversity of ManchesterAuditory and visual signals often occur together, and the two sensory channels are known to infl uence each other to facilitate perception. The neural basis of this integration is not well understood, although other forms of multisensory infl uences have been shown to occur at surprisingly early stages of processing in cortex. Primary visual cortex neurons can show frequency-tuning to auditory stimuli, and auditory cortex responds selectively to certain somatosensory stimuli, supporting the possibility that complex visual signals may modulate early stages of auditory processing. To elucidate which auditory regions, if any, are responsive to complex visual stimuli, we recorded from auditory cortex and the superior temporal sulcus while presenting visual stimuli consisting of various objects, neutral faces, and facial expressions generated during vocalization. Both objects and conspecifi c faces elicited robust fi eld potential responses in auditory cortex sites, but the responses varied by category: both neutral and vocalizing faces had a highly consistent negative component (N100) followed by a broader positive component (P180) whereas object responses were more variable in time and shape, but could be discriminated consistently from the responses to faces. The face response did not vary within the face category, i.e., for expressive vs. neutral face stimuli. The presence of responses for both objects and neutral faces suggests that auditory cortex receives highly informative visual input that is not restricted to those stimuli associated with auditory components. These results reveal selectivity for complex visual stimuli in a brain region conventionally described as non-visual unisensory cortex.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.06.002.2007/fullevent related potentiallocal field potentialmonkeymultimodalmultisensorySTS
spellingShingle Kari L Hoffman
Kari L Hoffman
Asif A Ghazanfar
Isabel Gauthier
Nikos K Logothetis
Nikos K Logothetis
Nikos K Logothetis
Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
event related potential
local field potential
monkey
multimodal
multisensory
STS
title Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex
title_full Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex
title_fullStr Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex
title_full_unstemmed Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex
title_short Category-specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex
title_sort category specific responses to faces and objects in primate auditory cortex
topic event related potential
local field potential
monkey
multimodal
multisensory
STS
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.06.002.2007/full
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