Watkins S, Shams L, Tanaka S, Haynes J-D, Rees G
Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
Neuroimage. 2006 Jul 1;31(3):1247-56. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.01.016. Epub 2006 Mar 23.
When a single brief visual flash is accompanied by two auditory bleeps, it is frequently perceived incorrectly as two flashes. Here, we used high field functional MRI in humans to examine the neural basis of this multisensory perceptual illusion. We show that activity in retinotopic visual cortex is increased by the presence of concurrent auditory stimulation, irrespective of any illusory perception. However, when concurrent auditory stimulation gave rise to illusory visual perception, activity in V1 was enhanced, despite auditory and visual stimulation being unchanged. These findings confirm that responses in human V1 can be altered by sound and show that they reflect subjective perception rather than the physically present visual stimulus. Moreover, as the right superior temporal sulcus and superior colliculus were also activated by illusory visual perception, together with V1, they provide a potential neural substrate for the generation of this multisensory illusion.
当一个短暂的视觉闪光伴随着两声听觉哔哔声时，它常常会被错误地感知为两次闪光。在此，我们利用高场功能磁共振成像技术对人类进行研究，以探究这种多感官知觉错觉的神经基础。我们发现，无论是否存在错觉感知，同时出现的听觉刺激都会增加视网膜拓扑视觉皮层的活动。然而，当同时出现的听觉刺激引发错觉视觉感知时，尽管听觉和视觉刺激未变，V1区的活动却增强了。这些发现证实，人类V1区的反应会受到声音的改变，且表明它们反映的是主观感知而非实际存在的视觉刺激。此外，由于右侧颞上沟和上丘也会因错觉视觉感知而被激活，与V1区一起，它们为这种多感官错觉的产生提供了潜在的神经基础。
