An unperceived acoustic stimulus decreases reaction time to visual information in a patient with cortical deafness.

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader An unperceived acoustic stimulus decreases reaction time to visual information in a patient with cortical deafness. Via cortical auditory Related Articles An unperceived acoustic stimulus decreases reaction time to visual information in a patient with cortical deafness. Sci Rep. 2020 04 02;10(1):5825 Authors: Carlsen AN, Maslovat D, Kaga K Abstract Responding to multiple stimuli of different modalities has been shown to reduce reaction time (RT), yet many different processes can potentially contribute to multisensory response enhancement. To investigate the neural circuits involved in voluntary response initiation, an acoustic stimulus of varying intensities (80, 105, or 120 dB) was presented during a visual RT task to a patient with profound bilateral cortical deafness and an intact auditory brainstem response. Despite being unable to consciously perceive sound, RT was reliably shortened (~100 ms) on trials where the unperceived acoustic stimulus was presented, confirming the presence of multisensory response enhancement. Although the exact locus of this enhancement is unclear, these results cannot be attributed to involvement of the auditory cortex. Thus, these data provide new and compelling evidence that activation from subcortical auditory processing circuits can contribute to other cortical or subcortical area s responsible for the initiation of a response, without the need for conscious perception. PMID: 32242039 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.