Neural basis of the crossmodal correspondence between auditory pitch an visuospatial elevation

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Kelly McCormick, Emory University; Simon Lacey, Emory University; Randall Stilla, Emory University; Lynne C. Nygaard, Emory University; Krishnankutty Sathian, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-04-01
• Publisher: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd.
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.02.029
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Neuropsychologia
• Volume: 112
• Start Page: 19
• End Page: 30
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by grants to KS and LN from the National Eye Institute at the NIH (R01EY025978) and the Emory University Research Council, and to KMcC from the Emory University Facility for Education and Research in Neuroscience and the Laney Graduate School.; Support to KS from the Veterans Administration is also acknowledged.
• Keywords: FMRI; Responses; Speech; Number; Reverse inference; Magnitude; Multisensory; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Neurosciences; Science & Technology; Multisensory integration; Psychology; Psychology, Experimental; Audiovisual integration; Semantic; Attention; Cognitive processes; Behavioral Sciences; Neurosciences & Neurology; Congruency effect; Visual Elevation; Speeded classification; Social Sciences; Working memory
• Research Categories: Psychology, Cognitive; Health Sciences, Rehabilitation and Therapy; Biology, Neuroscience; Psychology, Behavioral

Abstract

Crossmodal correspondences refer to associations between otherwise unrelated stimulus features in different sensory modalities. For example, high and low auditory pitches are associated with high and low visuospatial elevation, respectively. The neural mechanisms underlying crossmodal correspondences are currently unknown. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural basis of the pitch-elevation correspondence. Pitch-elevation congruency effects were observed bilaterally in the inferior frontal and insular cortex, the right frontal eye field and right inferior parietal cortex. Independent functional localizers failed to provide strong evidence for any of three proposed mechanisms for crossmodal correspondences: semantic mediation, magnitude estimation, and multisensory integration. Instead, pitch-elevation congruency effects overlapped with areas selective for visually presented non-word strings relative to sentences, and with regions sensitive to audiovisual asynchrony. Taken together with the prior literature, the observed congruency effects are most consistent with mediation by multisensory attention.