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Greater benefits of multisensory integration during complex sensorimotor transformations
Verena N Buchholz1, Samanthi C Goonetilleke, W Pieter Medendorp
1Radboud Univ. Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. verena.buchholz@donders.ru.nl
Journal of Neurophysiology
|March 30, 2012
Summary
Multisensory integration benefits gaze shifts, especially in crossed postures. This surprising finding suggests dynamic interactions between spatial principles and inverse effectiveness enhance sensorimotor transformations.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Human sensorimotor control
- Multisensory processing
Background:
- Multisensory integration is crucial for rapid and accurate behavior.
- Integrating sensory information across different reference frames and postural contexts is essential for spatial orientation and motor responses.
- Cross-hemispheric sensory convergence in certain postures may pose challenges for multisensory integration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of hand posture (uncrossed vs. crossed) on multisensory integration during orienting gaze shifts.
- To determine if crossed postures, requiring cross-hemispheric integration, enhance or hinder multisensory benefits.
- To explore the underlying principles governing multisensory integration in complex sensorimotor transformations.
Main Methods:
- Human participants performed orienting gaze shifts to visual, tactile, or visuotactile stimuli.
- Stimuli were presented in either a default uncrossed hand posture or a crossed posture.
- Reaction times and error rates were measured to quantify the effects of multisensory integration and posture.
Main Results:
- The greatest benefits of multisensory integration, indicated by reaction time decreases, were observed in the crossed posture.
- These reaction time improvements in the crossed posture did not lead to an increase in errors.
- The findings suggest a dynamic interplay between the spatial principle and inverse effectiveness in multisensory integration.
Conclusions:
- Multisensory integration provides significant advantages for sensorimotor transformations, even in complex crossed postures.
- The principles of spatial representation and inverse effectiveness dynamically interact to facilitate rapid and accurate motor responses.
- Inverse effectiveness may extend beyond external stimulus properties to encompass internal spatial representations influenced by body posture.
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