Neuroimaging of Crossmodal Priming
Poster Presentation

Desiree Gonzalo
Universitätsklinikum Eppendorf, Hamburg University

*Christian Büchel
Universitätsklinikum Eppendorf, Hamburg University

     Abstract ID Number: 59
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 17, 2005

Abstract
Many objects have a visual and an auditory representation. We investigated whether consecutive presentation of the same object (“concept”) in different sensory modalities would lead to priming effects. During scanning (fMRI) 13 healthy volunteers were tested in a forced choice same/different task with four crossmodal conditions (visual then auditory and auditory then visual, either congruent or incongruent) and two intramodal conditions (visual/visual and auditory/auditory, either congruent or incongruent). Stimuli consisted of concrete objects (tools, animals, musical instruments, etc.). In the intramodal conditions two stimuli were presented, which represented the same “concept” but were not physically identical. Our behavioural data show that reaction times were significantly shorter for the congruent than for the incongruent conditions, indicating a priming effect. Our neuroimaging results show an interaction between the factor cross/intra modalities and congruency with major activations observed in the superior temporal cortex bilaterally and the extrastriate cortex bilaterally, including the fusiform gyrus. Previous data have highlighted the role of superior temporal cortex in multimodal object recognition. Our present data additionally suggest an interplay between this brain region and extrastriate/fusiform cortex, which seems to be relevant to the task of matching across and between modalities.