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Related Concept Videos

Auditory Pathway

Auditory Pathway

Auditory pathways constitute the complex neural circuits responsible for transmitting and interpreting auditory information from the peripheral auditory system to the brain. Sound waves are initially captured by the outer ear, funneled through the ear canal, and reach the tympanic membrane (eardrum). These vibrations are transmitted via the middle ear's ossicles to the inner ear's cochlea.
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Association Areas of the Cortex

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Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

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Vision

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When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns

Published on: May 12, 2019

Prior auditory information shapes visual category-selectivity in ventral occipito-temporal cortex.

Ruth Adam¹, Uta Noppeney

¹Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany. ruth.adam@tuebingen.mpg.de

|May 11, 2010

Summary

Task-irrelevant sounds influence visual object recognition. Auditory and visual information are combined in the brain to improve category selection and response accuracy.

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Published on: October 24, 2012

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Sensory Integration

Background:

Objects in nature produce multisensory signals.
Understanding how sensory information is processed is crucial for cognitive science.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate how auditory stimuli affect visual object categorization.
Examine neural mechanisms of audiovisual integration in the brain.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used.
Participants categorized visual objects (landmarks, animal faces) while ignoring sounds.
Behavioral responses and brain activity were recorded.

Main Results:

Slower reaction times for incongruent audiovisual stimuli.
Parahippocampal gyri showed additive audiovisual information processing, enhancing landmark selectivity.
Prefrontal cortex activity increased with incongruent stimuli, indicating response selection demands.

Conclusions:

Task-irrelevant auditory information influences visual object categorization at multiple brain levels.
Auditory input sharpens visual category-selective responses in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex.
Interactive integration of audiovisual information occurs in the prefrontal cortex for response selection.