Multisensory Perception

We live in a multisensory world, and philosophers have long pondered the importance of interaction between the senses. Yet, traditional teaching of neuroscience and neurology has largely emphasized the idea that sensory processing takes place in mostly independent systems, with late convergence of inputs in higher-order areas of the cerebral cortex. Over the last few decades, however, there has been increasing interest in, and documentation of, interactions between the neural systems mediating perception in the various sense modalities. Such multisensory interactions are easily demonstrable behaviorally, as in the ventriloquist illusion where the puppet's moving lips deceive observers into believing that the sounds they hear emanate from the puppet, whereas they actually issue from the puppeteer pulling the strings. The classic work of Barry Stein and colleagues, along with that of many others, established that multisensory interactions are not the exclusive privilege of high-order neocortical areas, but are virtually ubiquitous in the central nervous system, occurring in a host of subcortical and cortical regions. Thus, many regions previously thought to be unisensory have proven to be multisensory.

Multisensory Perception surveys the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes, synthesizing information from diverse streams of research and defining hypotheses and questions to direct future work. Reflecting the nature of the field, the book is interdisciplinary, comprising the findings and views of writers with diverse backgrounds and using varied methods, including psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches. The first section covers basic principles, the second delves into specific interactions between the senses, the third focuses on the topic of crossmodal correspondences between particular sensory attributes and the related topic of synesthesia, while the final section is devoted to clinical aspects of multisensory processes, including rehabilitative interventions.

• Offers a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes
• Coverage includes basic principles, specific interactions between the senses, crossmodal correspondences, and clinical aspects of multisensory processes
• Interdisciplinary scope including psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches