Tactile Cross-Modal Acceleration Effects on Auditory Steady-State Response

Abstract

In the sensory cortex, cross-modal interaction occurs during the early cortical stages of processing; however, its effect on the speed of neuronal activity remains unclear. In this study, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate whether tactile stimulation influences auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs). To this end, a 0.5-ms electrical pulse was randomly presented to the dorsum of the left or right hand of 12 healthy volunteers at 700 ms while a train of 25-ms pure tones were applied to the left or right side at 75 dB for 1,200 ms. Peak latencies of 40-Hz ASSR were measured. Our results indicated that tactile stimulation significantly shortened subsequent ASSR latency. This cross-modal effect was observed from approximately 50 ms to 125 ms after the onset of tactile stimulation. The somatosensory information that appeared to converge on the auditory system may have arisen during the early processing stages, with the reduced ASSR latency indicating that a new sensory event from the cross-modal inputs served to increase the speed of ongoing sensory processing. Collectively, our findings indicate that ASSR latency changes are a sensitive index of accelerated processing.

The Auditory Steady-State Response: Electrophysiological Index for Sensory Processing Dysfunction in Psychiatric Disorders

“…We also recently demonstrated reduced ASSR latency by simultaneous tactile stimulation ( Figure 1D ) ( 102 ), strongly suggesting that cross-modal input increases the speed of ongoing auditory processing. This cross-modal ASSR paradigm may thus permit the assessment of multimodal sensory integration with high test–retest reliability ( 103 ).…”

Probabilistic, entropy-maximizing control of large-scale neural synchronization

“…For example, the inter-regional and cross-frequency coordination of large-scale oscillatory activity may be generally controlled by slowly co-varying the probabilities of synchronization across the relevant regions and frequency bands while maintaining maximum entropy on the timescale of a few seconds for energy efficiency. At the same time, the precisely timed coordination of inter-regional and cross-frequency synchronization of oscillatory activity may utilize phase-resetting initiated by punctate sensorimotor signals such as those generated by multisensory environmental stimuli as well as goal-directed and routine sensorimotor events such as blinks, saccades, and active touch (e.g., Rajkai et al, 2008;Fiebelkorn et al, 2011;Mercier et al, 2013;Thorne & Debener, 2014;Wutz et al, 2014;Sugiyama et al, 2019; see Ding &Simon, 2013 andVoloh &Womelsdorf, 2016 for reviews).…”

Probabilistic, entropy-maximizing control of large-scale neural synchronization

“…For example, the inter-regional and cross-frequency coordination of large-scale oscillatory activity may be generally controlled by slowly co-varying the probabilities of synchronization across the relevant regions and frequency bands while maintaining maximum entropy on the timescale of a few seconds for energy efficiency. At the same time, the precisely timed coordination of inter-regional and cross-frequency synchronization of oscillatory activity may utilize phase-resetting initiated by punctate sensorimotor signals such as those generated by multisensory environmental stimuli as well as goal-directed and routine sensorimotor events such as blinks, saccades, and active touch (e.g., [40][41][42][43][44][45]; see [46,47] for reviews). Further, non-oscillatory neural activities obscured in frequency-decomposition approaches may also play a substantial role in precisely timed neural coordination.…”