Position of acoustic stimulus modulates visual α activity.

It has been repeatedly shown that a unimodal stimulus can modulate oscillatory activity of multiple cortical areas already at early stages of sensory processing. In this way, an influence can be exerted on the response to a subsequent sensory input. Even though this fact is now well established, it is still not clear whether cortical sensory areas are informed about spatial positions of objects of modality other than their preferred one. Here, we test the hypothesis of whether oscillatory activity of the human visual cortex depends on the position of a unimodal auditory object. We recorded electroencephalogram while presenting sounds in an acoustic free-field either at the center of the visual field or at lateral positions. Using independent component analysis, we identified three cortical sources located in the visual cortex, showing stimulus position-specific oscillatory responses. The most pronounced effect was an immediate α (8-12 Hz) power decrease over the entire occipital lobe when the stimulus originated from the center of the binocular visual field. Following a lateral stimulation, the amplitude of α activity decreased slightly over contralateral visual areas, while at the same time a weak α synchronization was observed in corresponding ipsilateral areas. Thus, even in the absence of visual stimuli, the visual cortex is differentially activated depending on the position of an acoustic sound source. Our results show that the visual cortex receives information about the position of auditory stimuli within the visual field.

Resolution of lateral acoustic space assessed by electroencephalography and psychoacoustics.

The encoding of auditory spatial acuity (measured as the precision to distinguish between two spatially distinct stimuli) by neural circuits in both auditory cortices is a matter of ongoing research. Here, the event-related potential (ERP) mismatch negativity (MMN), a sensitive indicator of preattentive auditory change detection, was used to tap into the underlying mechanism of cortical representation of auditory spatial information. We characterized the MMN response affected by the degree of spatial deviance in lateral acoustic space using a passive oddball paradigm. Two stimulation conditions (SCs)-specifically focusing on the investigation of the mid- and far-lateral acoustic space-were considered: (1) 65° left standard position with deviant positions at 70, 75, and 80°; and (2) 95° left standard position with deviant positions at 90, 85, and 80°. Additionally, behavioral data on the minimum audible angle (MAA) were acquired for the respective standard positions (65, 95° left) to quantify spatial discrimination in separating distinct sound sources. The two measurements disclosed the linkage between the (preattentive) MMN response and the (attentive) behavioral threshold. At 65° spatial deviations as small as 5° reliably elicited MMNs. Thereby, the MMN amplitudes monotonously increased as a function of spatial deviation. At 95°, spatial deviations of 15° were necessary to elicit a valid MMN. The behavioral data, however, yielded no difference in mean MAA thresholds for position 65 and 95°. The different effects of laterality on MMN responses and MAA thresholds suggest a role of spatial selective attention mechanisms particularly relevant in active discrimination of neighboring sound sources, especially in the lateral acoustic space.