Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia Program, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA.
Hear Res. 2009 Dec;258(1-2):37-46. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2009.06.019. Epub 2009 Jul 18.
Functional studies have demonstrated multisensory responses in auditory cortex, even in the primary and early auditory association areas. The features of somatosensory and visual responses in auditory cortex suggest that they are involved in multiple processes including spatial, temporal and object-related perception. Tract tracing studies in monkeys have demonstrated several potential sources of somatosensory and visual inputs to auditory cortex. These include potential somatosensory inputs from the retroinsular (RI) and granular insula (Ig) cortical areas, and from the thalamic posterior (PO) nucleus. Potential sources of visual responses include peripheral field representations of areas V2 and prostriata, as well as the superior temporal polysensory area (STP) in the superior temporal sulcus, and the magnocellular medial geniculate thalamic nucleus (MGm). Besides these sources, there are several other thalamic, limbic and cortical association structures that have multisensory responses and may contribute cross-modal inputs to auditory cortex. These connections demonstrated by tract tracing provide a list of potential inputs, but in most cases their significance has not been confirmed by functional experiments. It is possible that the somatosensory and visual modulation of auditory cortex are each mediated by multiple extrinsic sources.
功能研究表明，听觉皮层中存在多感觉反应，即使在初级和早期听觉联合区也是如此。听觉皮层中躯体感觉和视觉反应的特征表明，它们涉及包括空间、时间和与物体相关的感知在内的多个过程。猴子的束路追踪研究表明，听觉皮层有几个潜在的躯体感觉和视觉输入来源。这些来源包括来自后岛回（RI）和颗粒状脑岛（Ig）皮质区以及丘脑后核（PO）的潜在躯体感觉输入。潜在的视觉反应来源包括 V2 和前脑叶区的外周野代表，以及颞上沟中的颞上多感觉区（STP），以及大细胞内侧膝状体丘脑核（MGm）。除了这些来源，还有其他几个丘脑、边缘和皮质联合结构具有多感觉反应，并可能向听觉皮层提供跨模态输入。这些由束路追踪显示的连接提供了潜在输入的列表，但在大多数情况下，其功能实验尚未证实其意义。躯体感觉和听觉皮层的视觉调制可能分别由多个外在来源介导。
