Is neocortex essentially multisensory?
Abstract
Although sensory perception and neurobiology are traditionally investigated one modality at a time, real world behaviour and perception are driven by the integration of information from multiple sensory sources. Mounting evidence suggests that the neural underpinnings of multisensory integration extend into early sensory processing. This article examines the notion that neocortical operations are essentially multisensory. We first review what is known about multisensory processing in higher-order association cortices and then discuss recent anatomical and physiological findings in presumptive unimodal sensory areas. The pervasiveness of multisensory influences on all levels of cortical processing compels us to reconsider thinking about neural processing in unisensory terms. Indeed, the multisensory nature of most, possibly all, of the neocortex forces us to abandon the notion that the senses ever operate independently during real-world cognition.
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Multisensory integration is critical for understanding and interpreting incoming sensory information from multiple modalities and ultimately provides context to a sensory experience that shapes one's own embodied representation of the self in relation to his/her surroundings.
“Multisensory integration is critical for understanding and interpreting incoming sensory information from multiple modalities (i.e., interoceptive or exteroceptive) and ultimately provides context to a sensory experience that shapes one’s own embodied representation of the self in relation to his/her surroundings (Figure 6; Couto et al., 2013; Ghazanfar and Schroeder, 2006; Macaluso and Driver, 20”
From How Processing of Sensory Information From the Internal and External Worlds Shape the Perception and Engagement With the World in the Aftermath of Trauma: Implications for PTSD (2021) · cites this paper as Ghazanfar and Schroeder, 2006
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- Authors
- GHAZANFAR, A., & SCHROEDER, C.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- GHAZANFAR, A
- SCHROEDER, C
- ORCID
- GHAZANFAR, A
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-06
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 278-285
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2073227393
- Cited by
- 1,463
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 103 · 2022: 79 · 2021: 79 · 2020: 113 · 2019: 80 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 67 · 2016: 67 · 2015: 72 · 2014: 66 · 2013: 85 · 2012: 86
- FWCI
- 84.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r03tw005674-03)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH61989, R01MH061989)
- Fogarty International Center (TW05674)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- multisensory integration, neocortex, association cortex, early sensory processing, cortical processing
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Brain Mapping, Humans, Mental Processes, Neural Pathways, Sensation, Neocortex
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