Spatial coincidence modulates interaction between visual and somatosensory evoked potentials.

The time course of interaction between concurrently applied visual and somatosensory stimulation with respect to evoked potentials (EPs) was studied. Visual stimuli, either in the left or right hemifield, and electric stimuli to the left wrist were delivered either alone or simultaneously. Visual and somatosensory EPs were summed and compared to bimodal EPs (BiEP, response to actual combination of both modalities). Temporal coincidence of stimuli lead to sub-additive or over-additive amplitudes in BiEPs in several time windows between 75 and 275 ms. Additional effects of spatial coincidence (left wrist with left hemifield) were found between 75 and 300 ms and beyond 450 ms. These interaction effects hint at a temporo-spatial pattern of multiple brain areas participating in the process of multimodal integration.