Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2026

Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: April 22, 2015
Are the senses enough for sense? Early high-level feedback shapes our comprehension of multisensory objects
Lorina Naci1, Kirsten I Taylor, Rhodri Cusack
1Department of Psychology, The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University London, ON, Canada ; Department of Experimental Psychology, Centre for Speech and Language, University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK.
Abstract:
A key question in cognitive neuroscience is how the brain combines low-level features processed in remote sensory cortices to represent meaningful multisensory objects in our everyday environment. Models of visual object processing typically assume a feedforward cascade through the hierarchically organized ventral stream. We contrasted this feedforward view with an alternate hypothesis in which object processing is viewed as an interactive, feedforward and feedback process. We found that higher-order regions in anterior temporal (AT) and inferior prefrontal cortex (IPC) performed audio-visual (AV) integration 100 ms earlier than a sensory-driven region in the posterior occipital (pO) cortex, and were modulated by semantic variables (congruency), from as early as 50-100 ms. We propose that the brain represents familiar and complex multisensory objects through early interactivity between higher-order and sensory-driven regions. This interactivity may underpin the enhanced behavioral performance reported for semantically congruent AV objects.
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Special Senses
Sensory Modalities
General senses refer to the broad category of sensory information detected by receptors in the body and can be further grouped into somatic and visceral senses. Somatic sensations include touch, pressure, temperature, and pain and are essential for navigating our environment and...
What is a Sensory System?
Sensory Perception: Organization of the Somatosensory System
The receptor level:
The receptor level is the first stage of sensation. It involves the detection of a stimulus by specialized sensory receptors. The stimulus must arrive within the receptor's receptive field. Next, the receptor converts the energy of the stimulus...
Perception
Bottom-up processing begins at the sensory level, where receptors detect external environmental stimuli. These could include the tactile sensation of...
Auditory Perception

