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Abstract

Recent results from human imaging and electrophysiology demonstrate that the processing of acoustic information can be influenced by stimulation of other sensory modalities already at early stages in auditory cortex. For example, auditory responses of neurons in primary and secondary fields are enhanced or reduced by the simultaneous presentation of visual or touch stimuli. Although often denoted as sensory integration, the exact function of these multisensory influences is unclear, and it remains to be shown whether they actually make the auditory neurons more reliable or informative about the acoustic environment. In my talk I shall first discuss neuroimaging and electrophysiology results related to the process of sensory integration, and subsequently describe two multimodal approaches for the study of in vivo connectivity, that can greatly facilitate the study of sensory integration.