1. Interregional alpha-band synchrony supports temporal cross-modal integration
- Author
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Tomas Knapen, Michael X Cohen, Daniel Marten van Es, Joram van Driel, Cognitive Psychology, IBBA, and Brein en Cognitie (Psychologie, FMG)
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Time Factors ,genetic structures ,Adolescent ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,Time perception ,Sensory system ,Stimulus (physiology) ,Electroencephalography ,Bayesian inference ,Developmental psychology ,Cross-modal integration ,Young Adult ,Functional connectivity ,Psychometric function ,Stimulus modality ,medicine ,Psychophysics ,Alpha-band ,Humans ,Attention ,Brain Mapping ,Modalities ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Phase synchrony ,Bayes Theorem ,Alpha Rhythm ,Neurology ,Auditory Perception ,Visual Perception ,Female ,Sensorimotor Cortex ,Psychology ,Psychomotor Performance ,Cognitive psychology - Abstract
In a continuously changing environment, time is a key property that tells us whether information from the different senses belongs together. Yet, little is known about how the brain integrates temporal information across sensory modalities. Using high-density EEG combined with a novel psychometric timing task in which human subjects evaluated durations of audiovisual stimuli, we show that the strength of alpha-band (8-12. Hz) phase synchrony between localizer-defined auditory and visual regions depended on cross-modal attention: during encoding of a constant 500. ms standard interval, audiovisual alpha synchrony decreased when subjects attended audition while ignoring vision, compared to when they attended both modalities. In addition, alpha connectivity during a variable target interval predicted the degree to which auditory stimulus duration biased time estimation while attending vision. This cross-modal interference effect was estimated using a hierarchical Bayesian model of a psychometric function that also provided an estimate of each individual's tendency to exhibit attention lapses. This lapse rate, in turn, was predicted by single-trial estimates of the stability of interregional alpha synchrony: when attending to both modalities, trials with greater stability in patterns of connectivity were characterized by reduced contamination by lapses. Together, these results provide new insights into a functional role of the coupling of alpha phase dynamics between sensory cortices in integrating cross-modal information over time. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.
- Published
- 2014
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