Current views of semantic memory share the assumption that conceptual representations are based on multimodal experience, which activates distinct modality-specific brain regions. This proposition is widely accepted, yet little is known about how each modality contributes to conceptual knowledge and how the structure of this contribution varies across these multiple information sources. We used...

We investigated the extent to which intramodal visual perceptual grouping influences the multisensory integration (or grouping) of auditory and visual motion information. Participants discriminated the direction of motion of two sequentially presented sounds (moving leftward or rightward), while simultaneously trying to ignore a task-irrelevant visual apparent motion stream. The principles of p...

In the "flash-beep illusion," a single light flash is perceived as multiple flashes when presented in close temporal proximity to multiple auditory beeps. Accounts of this illusion argue that temporal auditory information interferes with visual information because temporal acuity is better in audition than vision. However, it may also be that whenever there are multiple sensory inputs, the inte...

Theories of grounded cognition propose that modal simulations underlie cognitive representation of concepts [Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptual symbol systems. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(4), 577-660; Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645]. Based on recent evidence of modality-specific resources in perception, we hypothesized that verifying p...

Distinct event-related potential effects have been related to familiarity and recollection processes underlying recognition memory. Familiarity has been conceptualized as similar either to perceptual priming mechanisms supporting implicit memory or to amodal global-matching processes that should show little sensitivity to perceptual variables. The present experiment manipulated the study modali...

Perceptual modalities have been traditionally considered the product of dedicated biological systems producing information for higher cognitive processing. Psychological and neuropsychological evidence is offered which undermines this point of view and an alternative account of modality from the enactive approach to understanding cognition is suggested. Under this view, a perceptual modality is...

Cross-modality, or the interaction between the different senses, has emerged as a fundamental concept in perceptual neuroscience and psychology. The traditional idea of five separate senses with independent neural substrates has been invalidated by both psychophysical findings of sensory integration and neurophysiological discoveries of multi-modal neurons in many areas of the brain. Even areas...

Crossmodal integration is a term applicable to many phenomena in which one sensory modality influences task performance or perception in another sensory modality. We distinguish the term binding as one that should be reserved specifically for the process that underpins perceptual object formation. To unambiguously differentiate binding form other types of integration, behavioral and neural stud...

Emotions are a vital component of social communication, carried across a range of modalities and via different perceptual signals such as specific muscle contractions in the face and in the upper respiratory system. Previous studies have found that emotion recognition impairments after brain damage depend on the modality of presentation: recognition from faces may be impaired whilst recognition...

Coherent perception of objects in our environment often requires perceptual integration of auditory and visual information. Recent behavioral data suggest that audiovisual integration depends on attention. The current study investigated the neural basis of audiovisual integration using 3-Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 12 healthy volunteers during attention to auditory or ...