# CRCNS: Visual Modulation of Panoramic Auditory Spatial Processing

> **NIH NIH R01** · ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY-TEMPE CAMPUS · 2021 · $381,017

## Abstract

In everyday activity, our sense of space is guided by coordinated multisensory analyses of sensory
information from the surrounding environment. Multisensory spatial information is critical for identifying and
attending to a target sound in a noisy environment (e.g., night bars, restaurants). Multisensory information
is also crucial for detecting heard but unseen dangers because the spaces encoded by sounds and sights
do not always align. For foveal species like humans and monkeys, the visual field is restricted to the frontal
space, whereas the auditory field is panoramic, covering the entire frontal and rear space. The rear space,
however, has been largely overlooked in multisensory research. It remains largely unknown where and how
vision directly influences auditory spatial processing in the brain. The long-term objective of this study is to
understand the fundamental strategies of multisensory spatial perception and cortical neural mechanisms
that implement these strategies in the brain. This proposal will investigate how visual information modulates
auditory encoding of 360-degree, panoramic space in auditory cortex using an integrated approach based
on neurophysiology, mechanistic computational modeling, and predictive statistical modeling. We
hypothesize that visuo-spatial information increases auditory representation of the frontal space by
changing the directional preference of neural network dynamics. Neurophysiological experiments will
provide a comprehensive assessment of changes in the 360-degree spatial tuning of auditory cortex
neurons after frontal visual stimulation. Computational models will aid in identifying putative cell types and
reveal how heterogeneous recorded extracellular spiking waveforms depend on stimulus conditions and
cell type. Predictive statistical modeling will determine the sources of variance in cortical neuron spiking
data and will predict spiking output of different cell types under different conditions, all with laminar
specificity. This integrated approach will provide an understanding of visual modulation of auditory spatial
processing with a focus on the layer-specific interactions between local rhythm generators and single unit
activity. The impact of this work will be maximized through sharing of data in standardized formats, rigorous
and transparent model validation, and use of model description standards, which allows for code
generation for simulating models in many different programming languages or simulation platforms for
model re-use.
RELEVANCE (See instructions):
The ability of the nervous system to integrate multisensory inputs is essential to communications in
complex sensory and social environments. Impairment of this ability is the most noticeable outcome of
hearing loss. Identifying how the auditory cortex encodes sound features in a visual environment will
improve our understanding of how multisensory perception might be implemented in neural circuits, thereby
revealing potential source...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10197877
- **Project number:** 5R01DC019278-02
- **Recipient organization:** ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY-TEMPE CAMPUS
- **Principal Investigator:** Yi Zhou
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $381,017
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10197877

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10197877, CRCNS: Visual Modulation of Panoramic Auditory Spatial Processing (5R01DC019278-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10197877. Licensed CC0.

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