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Is there a role of visual cortex in spatial hearing
| Venue: | Eur. J. Neurosci |
| Citations: | 6 - 0 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Zimmer_isthere,
author = {Ulrike Zimmer and Michael Erb and Wolfgang Grodd and Hans-otto Karnath},
title = {Is there a role of visual cortex in spatial hearing},
journal = {Eur. J. Neurosci},
year = {},
pages = {3148--3156}
}
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Abstract
The integration of auditory and visual spatial information is an important prerequisite for accurate orientation in the environment. However, while visual spatial information is based on retinal coordinates, the auditory system receives information on sound location in relation to the head. Thus, any deviation of the eyes from a central position results in a divergence between the retinal visual and the head-centred auditory coordinates. It has been suggested that this divergence is compensated for by a neural coordinate transformation, using a signal of eye-in-head position. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated which cortical areas of the human brain participate in such auditory–visual coordinate transformations. Sounds were produced with different interaural level differences, leading to left, right or central intracranial percepts, while subjects directed their gaze to visual targets presented to the left, to the right or straight ahead. When gaze was to the left or right, we found the primary visual cortex (V1 ⁄V2) activated in both hemispheres. The occipital activation did not occur with sound lateralization per se, but was found exclusively in combination with eccentric eye positions. This result suggests a relation of neural processing in the visual cortex and the transformation of auditory spatial coordinates responsible for maintaining the perceptual alignment of audition and vision with changes in gaze direction.
Keyphrases
visual cortex spatial hearing visual spatial information v1 v2 gaze direction head-centred auditory coordinate different interaural level difference neural processing sound lateralization visual target sound location neural coordinate transformation functional magnetic resonance imaging important prerequisite retinal coordinate accurate orientation auditory spatial coordinate central position result eye-in-head position perceptual alignment primary visual cortex eccentric eye position cortical area human brain participate auditory system occipital activation auditory visual coordinate transformation central intracranial percept
