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Updated: Apr 1, 2026
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Stimulus-specific Cortical Visual Evoked Potential Morphological Patterns
Published on: May 12, 2019
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Interacting parallel pathways associate sounds with visual identity in auditory cortices.
Jyrki Ahveninen1, Samantha Huang1, Seppo P Ahlfors1
1Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA.
Neuroimage
|October 1, 2015
Summary
Auditory cortex processes sound object identity and location in parallel. Visual changes reset these auditory streams, engaging widespread brain networks for updated perception.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Auditory Perception
- Multisensory Integration
Background:
- Auditory cortex (AC) processes sound spatial ('where') and non-spatial ('what') information in parallel streams.
- These streams are influenced by visual cortex subsystems.
- The integration of these parallel processes into stable perceptual objects remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how auditory and visual information are integrated to form stable audiovisual object representations.
- To understand the neural mechanisms underlying the maintenance and updating of object identity in the auditory cortex.
Main Methods:
- Magneto- and electroencephalography (MEG/EEG) recorded brain activity in human subjects.
- Subjects viewed animated videos with two distinct audiovisual objects (cats).
- Adaptor-probe paradigm tested responses to repeated object events versus identity-changed events.
Main Results:
- Object identity changes released adaptation in posterior and anterior ACs.
- Repetition of the same object increased theta-band synchronization in 'what' and 'where' pathways.
- Identity changes induced higher-frequency (alpha/beta band) synchronization across auditory, visual, and association areas.
Conclusions:
- Sound events initially link to perceptual objects in posterior AC, with subsequent modulation in anterior AC.
- Parallel 'what' and 'where' pathways maintain audiovisual associations.
- Resetting of these associations involves a distributed network across multiple brain regions.
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