# Neural Correlates of Auditory, Visual, and Audiovisual Motion Perception in Macaque Extrastriate Cortex

> **NIH NIH F31** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $34,295

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Our world is highly multisensory, and we acquire information about it via a number of distinct sensory
systems. Typically, objects or events are specified by more than a single sense, and the integration of this
multisensory information confers powerful and adaptive perceptual and behavioral advantages such as faster
and more accurate responses. These advantages become pivotal when navigating complex environments where
motion is ubiquitous, as is the case in the real world. However, multisensory processing also presents a
computational challenge for the brain: to carry it out efficiently, the brain needs to not only decide which pieces
of sensory information belong to the same event (and thus should be integrated or bound), but also which
information needs to be segregated. Although great strides have been made in recent years to further our
understanding of multisensory perception and its neural correlates, there are still significant gaps in our
knowledge with regards to processing more ecologically-valid stimuli, such as those containing motion. One of
these gaps revolves around how motion information is transformed in the presence of modulatory, cross-modal
input as it makes its way through successive stages of the cortical processing hierarchy, and how these
transformations map on to behavior/perception. The experiments outlined in the current proposal begin to
address this issue using behavioral paradigms that we have developed in which macaques signal the direction
of an auditory, visual, or audiovisual motion stimulus. During performance of the task, we will record neural
activity in two cortical domains reflecting successive levels in the processing hierarchy: the medial temporal
(MT) and medial superior temporal (MST) areas. The first aim will examine how modality and motion strength
within audiovisual stimuli impact discrimination behavior and contribute towards causal inference. The second
aim seeks to characterize responses to auditory, visual, and audiovisual motion information in these areas with
the overarching hypothesis that as motion information ascends from MT to MST, there will be an increase in
the role of modulatory auditory input, reflective of a gradual shift from encoding low-level stimulus features
such as signal strength toward the encoding of features relevant to goal-oriented behavior such as stimulus
direction and task demands. Collectively, the work will shed great light on the mechanistic underpinnings of
multisensory perception in nodes critical to motion processing. Additionally, success in these experiments
would challenge how we think about the modularity of the sensory cortical processing hierarchy. Such
knowledge is of increasing importance given the growing recognition of altered multisensory function in those
with neurodevelopmental conditions and/or sensory function loss, as well as the value of brain-informed
algorithms for naturalistic virtual and augmented reality technology.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11001097
- **Project number:** 5F31EY035167-02
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Adriana Schoenhaut
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $34,295
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-30 → 2025-07-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11001097

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11001097, Neural Correlates of Auditory, Visual, and Audiovisual Motion Perception in Macaque Extrastriate Cortex (5F31EY035167-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11001097. Licensed CC0.

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