How Senses Work Together: Cross-Modal Interactions between Primary Sensory Cortices

Figure 1

Simultaneous intrinsic signal imaging of the primary auditory (A1) and primary visual cortex (V1) before and after the induction of a conductive hearing loss (CHL). (Upper row) tonotopically organized phase map of the auditory cortex and visuotopically organized phase map of the visual cortex obtained before and after CHL in the same animal. Note that after CHL, the map of the auditory cortex was absent. (Lower row) corresponding amplitude maps. Generally, darker activity patches indicate higher sensory-evoked activity. After CHL, visually evoked V1 activity substantially increased. Thus, in normal mice, auditory stimulation suppresses visually elicited V1 responses.