Beyond sense-specific processing: decoding texture in the brain from touch and sonified movement
C. Landelle,
J. Caron-Guyon,
B. Nazarian,
J.L. Anton,
J. Sein,
L. Pruvost,
M. Amberg,
F. Giraud,
O. Félician,
J. Danna,
A. Kavounoudias
Affiliations
C. Landelle
McGill University, McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada; Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, LNC UMR 7291, Marseille, France
J. Caron-Guyon
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, LNC UMR 7291, Marseille, France; University of Louvain, Institute for Research in Psychology (IPSY) & Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Louvain Bionics Center, Crossmodal Perception and Plasticity Laboratory, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
B. Nazarian
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Centre IRM-INT@CERIMED, Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, INT UMR 7289, Marseille, France
J.L. Anton
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Centre IRM-INT@CERIMED, Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, INT UMR 7289, Marseille, France
J. Sein
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Centre IRM-INT@CERIMED, Institut de Neurosciences de la Timone, INT UMR 7289, Marseille, France
L. Pruvost
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Perception, Représentations, Image, Son, Musique, PRISM UMR 7061, Marseille, France
M. Amberg
Université Lille, Laboratoire d'Electrotechnique et d'Electronique de Puissance, EA 2697-L2EP, Lille, France
F. Giraud
Université Lille, Laboratoire d'Electrotechnique et d'Electronique de Puissance, EA 2697-L2EP, Lille, France
O. Félician
Aix Marseille Université, INSERM, Institut des Neurosciences des Systèmes, INS UMR 1106, Marseille, France
J. Danna
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, LNC UMR 7291, Marseille, France; Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Laboratoire Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie, CLLE UMR5263, Toulouse, France
A. Kavounoudias
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, LNC UMR 7291, Marseille, France; Corresponding author
Summary: Texture, a fundamental object attribute, is perceived through multisensory information including touch and auditory cues. Coherent perceptions may rely on shared texture representations across different senses in the brain. To test this hypothesis, we delivered haptic textures coupled with a sound synthesizer to generate real-time textural sounds. Participants completed roughness estimation tasks with haptic, auditory, or bimodal cues in an MRI scanner. Somatosensory, auditory, and visual cortices were all activated during haptic and auditory exploration, challenging the traditional view that primary sensory cortices are sense-specific. Furthermore, audio-tactile integration was found in secondary somatosensory (S2) and primary auditory cortices. Multivariate analyses revealed shared spatial activity patterns in primary motor and somatosensory cortices, for discriminating texture across both modalities. This study indicates that primary areas and S2 have a versatile representation of multisensory textures, which has significant implications for how the brain processes multisensory cues to interact more efficiently with our environment.
