An event-related brain potential study of cross-modal links in spatial attention between vision and touch

Event-related potential (ERP) evidence for the existence of cross-modal links in endogenous spatial attention between vision and touch was obtained in an experiment where participants had to detect tactile or visual targets on the attended side and to ignore the irrelevant modality and stimuli on the unattended side. For visual ERPs, attentional modulations of occipital P1 and N1 components were present when attention was directed both within vision and within touch, indicating that links in spatial attention from touch to vision can affect early stages of visual processing. For somatosensory ERPs, attentional negativities starting around 140 ms poststimulus were present at midline and lateral central electrodes when touch was relevant. No attentional somatosensory ERP modulations were present when vision was relevant and tactile stimuli could be entirely ignored. However, in another task condition where responses were also required to infrequent tactile targets regardless of their location, visual-spatial attention modulated somatosensory ERPs. Unlike vision, touch apparently can be decoupled from attentional orienting within another modality unless it is potentially relevant.