Task-demands and audio-visual stimulus configurations modulate neural activity in the human thalamus

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 66; pp. 110 - 118
• Main Authors: Bonath, Björn, Tyll, Sascha, Budinger, Eike, Krauel, Kerstin, Hopf, Jens-Max, Noesselt, Tömme
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.02.2013; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Auditory Perception - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Electrophysiological recording; Female; fMRI; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - instrumentation; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Multisensory interplay; Posterior Thalamic Nuclei - physiology; Space Perception - physiology; Studies; Temporal and spatial task-demands; Thalamus; Thalamus - cytology; Thalamus - physiology; Time Perception - physiology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Visual Perception - physiology; Young Adult; Human; fMRI; Thalamus; Multisensory interplay; Temporal and spatial task-demands; Visual stimulus; Central nervous system; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Encephalon; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.10.018

Recent electrophysiological studies have reported short latency modulations in cortical regions for multisensory stimuli, thereby suggesting a subcortical, possibly thalamic origin of these modulations. Concurrently, there is an ongoing debate, whether multisensory interplay reflects automatic, bottom-up driven processes or relies on top-down influences. Here, we dissociated the effects of task set and stimulus configurations on BOLD-signals in the human thalamus with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We orthogonally manipulated temporal and spatial congruency of audio-visual stimulus configurations, while subjects judged either their temporal or spatial congruency. Voxel-based fMRI results revealed increased fMRI-signals for the temporal versus spatial task in posterior and central thalamus, respectively. A more sensitive region of interest (ROI)-analysis confirmed that the posterior thalamic nuclei showed a preference for the temporal task and central thalamic nuclei for the spatial task. Moreover, the ROI-analysis also revealed enhanced fMRI-signals for spatially incongruent stimuli in the central thalamus. Together, our results demonstrate that both audio-visual stimulus configurations and task-related processing of spatial or temporal stimulus features selectively modulate thalamic processing and thus are in a position to influence cortical processing at an early stage.