Emergence of β and γ networks following multisensory training

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 206; p. 116313
• Main Authors: La Rocca, Daria, Ciuciu, Philippe, Engemann, Denis-Alexander, van Wassenhove, Virginie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.02.2020; Elsevier Limited; Academic Press; Elsevier
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Acoustic texture; Adolescent; Adult; Audiovisual; Auditory discrimination; Auditory Perception - physiology; Auditory plasticity; Beta; Beta Rhythm - physiology; Brain - physiology; Brain research; Confidence; Cortex; Decision making; Female; Functional connectivity; Gamma; Gamma Rhythm - physiology; Humans; Learning; Magnetoencephalography; Male; MEG; Motion coherence; Motion detection; Motion Perception - physiology; Multisensory; Oscillations; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Photic Stimulation; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Sensory integration; Synchronization; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual discrimination; Visual stimuli; Young Adult; Motion coherence; Functional connectivity; Audiovisual; Learning; Gamma; Confidence; Oscillations; Acoustic texture; Multisensory; MEG; Beta
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116313

Our perceptual reality relies on inferences about the causal structure of the world given by multiple sensory inputs. In ecological settings, multisensory events that cohere in time and space benefit inferential processes: hearing and seeing a speaker enhances speech comprehension, and the acoustic changes of flapping wings naturally pace the motion of a flock of birds. Here, we asked how a few minutes of (multi)sensory training could shape cortical interactions in a subsequent unisensory perceptual task. For this, we investigated oscillatory activity and functional connectivity as a function of individuals’ sensory history during training. Human participants performed a visual motion coherence discrimination task while being recorded with magnetoencephalography. Three groups of participants performed the same task with visual stimuli only, while listening to acoustic textures temporally comodulated with the strength of visual motion coherence, or with auditory noise uncorrelated with visual motion. The functional connectivity patterns before and after training were contrasted to resting-state networks to assess the variability of common task-relevant networks, and the emergence of new functional interactions as a function of sensory history. One major finding is the emergence of a large-scale synchronization in the high γ (gamma: 60−120Hz) and β (beta: 15−30Hz) bands for individuals who underwent comodulated multisensory training. The post-training network involved prefrontal, parietal, and visual cortices. Our results suggest that the integration of evidence and decision-making strategies become more efficient following congruent multisensory training through plasticity in network routing and oscillatory regimes.