Department of Neurological Surgery, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 33136, USA.
Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2022 Dec 22;12(1):22156. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-26678-x.
Although multisensory integration (MSI) has been extensively studied, the underlying mechanisms remain a topic of ongoing debate. Here we investigate these mechanisms by comparing MSI in healthy controls to a clinical population with spinal cord injury (SCI). Deafferentation following SCI induces sensorimotor impairment, which may alter the ability to synthesize cross-modal information. We applied mathematical and computational modeling to reaction time data recorded in response to temporally congruent cross-modal stimuli. We found that MSI in both SCI and healthy controls is best explained by cross-modal perceptual competition, highlighting a common competition mechanism. Relative to controls, MSI impairments in SCI participants were better explained by reduced stimulus salience leading to increased cross-modal competition. By combining traditional analyses with model-based approaches, we examine how MSI is realized during normal function, and how it is compromised in a clinical population. Our findings support future investigations identifying and rehabilitating MSI deficits in clinical disorders.
尽管多感觉整合（MSI）已经得到了广泛的研究，但潜在的机制仍然是一个正在讨论的话题。在这里，我们通过将健康对照组与脊髓损伤（SCI）的临床人群进行比较来研究这些机制。SCI 后的去传入会引起感觉运动障碍，这可能会改变综合跨模态信息的能力。我们应用数学和计算模型来分析对时间上一致的跨模态刺激的反应时间数据。我们发现，无论是在 SCI 患者还是健康对照组中，MSI 都可以通过跨模态感知竞争来很好地解释，这突出了一个共同的竞争机制。与对照组相比，SCI 参与者的 MSI 损伤可以更好地通过降低刺激显著性来解释，这导致了跨模态竞争的增加。通过将传统分析与基于模型的方法相结合，我们研究了 MSI 在正常功能期间是如何实现的，以及在临床人群中是如何受到损害的。我们的研究结果支持未来对临床障碍中 MSI 缺陷的识别和康复的研究。
