Combined functional and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging reveals temporal-occipital network involved in auditory-visual object perception A L Beer1, T Plank1, G Meyer2, M W Greenlee1 |
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1Experimental Psychology, University of Regensburg, Germany |
| Multisensory object perception involves various brain areas in the superior temporal and occipital cortex. We examined ten healthy people with combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and probabilistic fiber tracking based on diffusion-weighted MRI in order to investigate the white matter connectivity of this multisensory processing network. During functional examinations observers viewed either movies of lip or body movements, listened to corresponding sounds (speech sounds or body action sounds), or a combination of both. We found that bimodal stimulation engaged a temporal-occipital network of brain areas including the multisensory superior temporal sulcus (STS). Fiber tracking revealed white matter tracks between the auditory and the medial occipital cortex, the STS, and the inferior occipital cortex. However, limited overlap was observed in the STS between terminations of the auditory white matter tracks and the functional activity. Instead region-by-region tracking showed that the multisensory STS region was connected to primary sensory regions via intermediate nodes in the superior temporal and inferior occipital cortex. Our findings suggest that multisensory object processing relies on a brain network in the superior temporal and inferior occipital cortex that is best revealed by combining functional and diffusion-weighted MRI methods. |
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