Although the structure and function of the SC are well known, the cortex and the relationship between its constituent parts are presently the subject of much investigation. Nevertheless, burgeoning neuroscience research continues to enrich our understanding of the many details of the brain, including neural structures implicated in multisensory integration such as the superior colliculus (SC) and various cortical structures such as the superior temporal gyrus (GT) and visual and auditory association areas. Notwithstanding the existence of Gestalt psychology schools that advocate a holistic approach to the operation of the brain, the physiological processes underlying the formation of percepts and conscious experience have been vastly understudied. Perception is also defined and studied in terms of feature extraction, which is several hundred milliseconds away from conscious experience. Perception is often defined as ones conscious experience, and thereby combines inputs from all relevant senses and prior knowledge. Some of the mechanisms mediating this phenomenon and its subsequent effects on cognitive and behavioural processes will be examined hereafter. For perceptual experience and behavior to benefit from the simultaneous stimulation of multiple sensory modalities, integration of the information from these modalities is necessary. It is obviously important for the senses to interact in order to maximize how efficiently people interact with the environment.
Multimodal perception definition full#
However, considerations of how unified conscious representations are formed are not the full focus of multimodal Integration research. In the visual domain, if color, motion, depth, and form, are processed independently, where does the unified coherent conscious experience of the visual world come in? This is known as the binding problem and is usually studied entirely within visual processes, however it is clear that the binding problem is central to multisensory perception. In touch (or 'somatosensation'), one can distinguish sub-modalities of vibration, light pressure, deep pressure, temperature, pain, muscle stretch, and affective touch.
In vision, the processing of colour, shape, orientation, motion, and depth may occur somewhat separately, and form somewhat independent submodalities of vision. Further, is 'pain' a separate sense, or should it be considered a part of 'touch'? To some extent, the study of multisensory integration brings into question the idea that we have separate senses at all.Įach sensory modality can be further sub-divided into submodalities. Sensations of self-motion and balance for example are often referred to as being sensed by the inner ear which is misleading giving one the impression that they are related to hearing as opposed to sensations detected by the vestibular system. The actual number of sensory modalities that an organism has is hard to define (e.g., Grice, 1962). Traditionally (since Aristotle?), humans are thought to have five separate senses: vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. 6.1.1 Superior colliculus (SC) or Optic tectum (OT).5 Perceptual and behavioral consequences.4.3 The principle of inverse effectiveness.4 Principles of multisensory integration.
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