Multisensory interactions between vestibular, visual and somatosensory signals

Vestibular inputs are constantly processed and integrated with signals from other sensory modalities, such as vision and touch. The multiply-connected nature of vestibular cortical anatomy led us to investigate whether vestibular signals could participate in a multi-way interaction with visual and s...

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Hauptverfasser: Ferrè, Elisa Raffaella (VerfasserIn) , Walther, Leif Erik (VerfasserIn) , Haggard, Patrick (VerfasserIn)
Dokumenttyp: Article (Journal)
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: April 13, 2015
In: PLOS ONE
Year: 2015, Jahrgang: 10, Heft: 4
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0124573
Online-Zugang:Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124573
Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: http://journals.plos.org.ezproxy.medma.uni-heidelberg.de/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0124573
Volltext
Verfasserangaben:Elisa Raffaella Ferrè, Leif Erik Walther, Patrick Haggard
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Vestibular inputs are constantly processed and integrated with signals from other sensory modalities, such as vision and touch. The multiply-connected nature of vestibular cortical anatomy led us to investigate whether vestibular signals could participate in a multi-way interaction with visual and somatosensory perception. We used signal detection methods to identify whether vestibular stimulation might interact with both visual and somatosensory events in a detection task. Participants were instructed to detect near-threshold somatosensory stimuli that were delivered to the left index finger in one half of experimental trials. A visual signal occurred close to the finger in half of the trials, independent of somatosensory stimuli. A novel Near infrared caloric vestibular stimulus (NirCVS) was used to artificially activate the vestibular organs. Sham stimulations were used to control for non-specific effects of NirCVS. We found that both visual and vestibular events increased somatosensory sensitivity. Critically, we found no evidence for supra-additive multisensory enhancement when both visual and vestibular signals were administered together: in fact, we found a trend towards sub-additive interaction. The results are compatible with a vestibular role in somatosensory gain regulation.
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Beschreibung:Online Resource
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0124573