Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels

Audiovisual information reaches the brain via both sustained and transient input channels, representing signals’ intensity over time or changes thereof, respectively. To date, it is unclear to what extent transient and sustained input channels contribute to the combined percept obtained through mult...

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Main Authors: Cesare V Parise, Marc O Ernst
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2025-01-01
Series:eLife
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Online Access:https://elifesciences.org/articles/90841
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author Cesare V Parise
Marc O Ernst
author_facet Cesare V Parise
Marc O Ernst
author_sort Cesare V Parise
collection DOAJ
description Audiovisual information reaches the brain via both sustained and transient input channels, representing signals’ intensity over time or changes thereof, respectively. To date, it is unclear to what extent transient and sustained input channels contribute to the combined percept obtained through multisensory integration. Based on the results of two novel psychophysical experiments, here we demonstrate the importance of the transient (instead of the sustained) channel for the integration of audiovisual signals. To account for the present results, we developed a biologically inspired, general-purpose model for multisensory integration, the multisensory correlation detectors, which combines correlated input from unimodal transient channels. Besides accounting for the results of our psychophysical experiments, this model could quantitatively replicate several recent findings in multisensory research, as tested against a large collection of published datasets. In particular, the model could simultaneously account for the perceived timing of audiovisual events, multisensory facilitation in detection tasks, causality judgments, and optimal integration. This study demonstrates that several phenomena in multisensory research that were previously considered unrelated, all stem from the integration of correlated input from unimodal transient channels.
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spelling doaj-art-94c28eddf9f74821ace1badbb166ef332025-01-22T14:23:50ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-01-011210.7554/eLife.90841Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channelsCesare V Parise0https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6092-561XMarc O Ernst1Cognitive Neuroscience Department, University of Bielefeld (DE), Bielefeld, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United KingdomCognitive Neuroscience Department, University of Bielefeld (DE), Bielefeld, Germany; Applied Cognitive Psychology, University of Ulm (DE), Ulm, GermanyAudiovisual information reaches the brain via both sustained and transient input channels, representing signals’ intensity over time or changes thereof, respectively. To date, it is unclear to what extent transient and sustained input channels contribute to the combined percept obtained through multisensory integration. Based on the results of two novel psychophysical experiments, here we demonstrate the importance of the transient (instead of the sustained) channel for the integration of audiovisual signals. To account for the present results, we developed a biologically inspired, general-purpose model for multisensory integration, the multisensory correlation detectors, which combines correlated input from unimodal transient channels. Besides accounting for the results of our psychophysical experiments, this model could quantitatively replicate several recent findings in multisensory research, as tested against a large collection of published datasets. In particular, the model could simultaneously account for the perceived timing of audiovisual events, multisensory facilitation in detection tasks, causality judgments, and optimal integration. This study demonstrates that several phenomena in multisensory research that were previously considered unrelated, all stem from the integration of correlated input from unimodal transient channels.https://elifesciences.org/articles/90841sensory processingmultisensory integrationpsychophysicscomputational modeling
spellingShingle Cesare V Parise
Marc O Ernst
Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels
eLife
sensory processing
multisensory integration
psychophysics
computational modeling
title Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels
title_full Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels
title_fullStr Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels
title_full_unstemmed Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels
title_short Multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels
title_sort multisensory integration operates on correlated input from unimodal transient channels
topic sensory processing
multisensory integration
psychophysics
computational modeling
url https://elifesciences.org/articles/90841
work_keys_str_mv AT cesarevparise multisensoryintegrationoperatesoncorrelatedinputfromunimodaltransientchannels
AT marcoernst multisensoryintegrationoperatesoncorrelatedinputfromunimodaltransientchannels