Visual- and saccade-related signals in the primate inferior colliculus

cloudy submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.pnas.org)

The inferior colliculus (IC) is normally thought of as a predominantly auditory structure because of its early position in the ascending auditory pathway just before the auditory thalamus. Here, we show that a majority of IC neurons (64% of 180 neurons) in awake monkeys carry visual- and/or saccade-related signals in addition to their auditory responses (P < 0.05). The response patterns involve primarily excitatory visual responses, but also increased activity time-locked to the saccade, slow rises in activity time-locked to the onset of the visual stimulus, and inhibitory responses

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: multisensory vision hearing sensory processing

Threatening a rubber hand that you feel is yours elicits a cortical anxiety response

cappuccion submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.pnas.org)

The feeling of body ownership is a fundamental aspect of self-consciousness. The underlying neural mechanisms can be studied by using the illusion where a person is made to feel that a rubber hand is his or her own hand by brushing the person's hidden real hand and synchronously brushing the artificial hand that is in full view. Here we show that threat to the rubber hand can induce a similar level of activity in the brain areas associated with anxiety and interoceptive awareness (insula and anterior cingulate cortex) as when the person's real hand is threatened.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: body image emotion fMRI multisensory