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Grey matter volume in early human visual cortex predicts proneness to the sound-induced flash illusion

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 14:32 authored by Benjamin de Haas, Ryota Kanai, Lauri Jalkanen, Geraint Rees
Visual perception can be modulated by sounds. A drastic example of this is the sound-induced flash illusion: when a single flash is accompanied by two bleeps, it is sometimes perceived in an illusory fashion as two consecutive flashes. However, there are strong individual differences in proneness to this illusion. Some participants experience the illusion on almost every trial, whereas others almost never do. We investigated whether such individual differences in proneness to the sound-induced flash illusion were reflected in structural differences in brain regions whose activity is modulated by the illusion. We found that individual differences in proneness to the illusion were strongly and significantly correlated with local grey matter volume in early retinotopic visual cortex. Participants with smaller early visual cortices were more prone to the illusion. We propose that strength of auditory influences on visual perception is determined by individual differences in recurrent connections, cross-modal attention and/or optimal weighting of sensory channels.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Proceedings B: Biological Sciences

ISSN

1471-2954

Publisher

Royal Society, The

Issue

1749

Volume

279

Page range

4955-4961

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-03-11

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