Effects of Visual Stimuli on Auditory Object Identification in a Crossmodal Priming Paradigm
Single Paper Presentation

Till R. Schneider
Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

Stefan Debener
MRC Institute of Hearing Research Southampton, Southampton Hants, Royal South Hants Hospital

Andreas K. Engel
Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

     Abstract ID Number: 165
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 19, 2006
     Presentation date: 06/20/2006 4:30 PM in Hamilton Building, McNeil Theatre
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Crossmodal integration processes were investigated by repeating semantically identical stimuli of objects in the auditory and visual modality in order to test whether priming induced memory effects are predominantly amodal or modality-specific. Twenty-six subjects participated in a S1-S2 priming experiment with auditory and visual stimuli of different objects while EEG was recorded. Congruent and incongruent visual-auditory stimulus pairs were presented with an inter-stimulus interval of 1000 ms. In a unimodal control condition congruent and incongruent auditory stimulus pairs were presented. Subjects had to estimate the size of the objects. Reaction times were decreased for congruent compared to incongruent stimulus pairs in the crossmodal as well as in the unimodal condition. Auditory evoked potentials showed a positive shift in the time range of 300 to 400 ms after congruent compared to incongruent stimulation in both the cross- and unimodal condition. These findings on auditory evoked potentials are consistent with earlier reports in the repetition priming literature. Moreover, an increase in the gamma-band response induced by the auditory S2 stimulus was observed for semantically congruent stimulus pairs in the crossmodal condition. The implications of these results for the modality specificity of memory representations are discussed.