Multisensory Associative Learning and Multisensory Integration

Human multisensory experiences with the world rely on a combination of top-down and bottom-up influences, a process that changes throughout development. The present study explored the relationship between multisensory associative learning and multisensory integration using encephalography (EEG) and behavioural measures. While recording EEG activity, participants were exposed to novel pairings of non-sociolinguistic audiovisual stimuli of varying presentation probability while performing a detection task. The same stimuli were then used in another detection task, which was followed by an analogous behavioural speeded-response task, both of which kept probabilities equal and tested for multisensory integration. Significant relationships were found in fronto-central and occipital areas between late measures of associative learning and both early and late indices of multisensory integration in frontal and centro-parietal areas, respectively. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found between the behavioural and early neural index of multisensory integration. These results highlight the influence of higher-order processes, namely, learned associations on multisensory integration