In the sensory cortex, cross-modal interaction occurs during the early cortical stages of processing; however, its effect on the speed of neuronal activity remains unclear. In this study, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate whether tactile stimulation influences auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs). To this end, a 0.5-ms electrical pulse was randomly presented to the dorsum of the left or right hand of 12 healthy volunteers at 700 ms while a train of 25-ms pure tones were applied to the left or right side at 75 dB for 1,200 ms. Peak latencies of 40-Hz ASSR were measured. Our results indicated that tactile stimulation significantly shortened subsequent ASSR latency. This cross-modal effect was observed from approximately 50 ms to 125 ms after the onset of tactile stimulation. The somatosensory information that appeared to converge on the auditory system may have arisen during the early processing stages, with the reduced ASSR latency indicating that a new sensory event from the cross-modal inputs served to increase the speed of ongoing sensory processing. Collectively, our findings indicate that ASSR latency changes are a sensitive index of accelerated processing.

中文翻译：

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触觉跨模态加速对听觉稳态响应的影响。

在感觉皮层中，跨模态相互作用发生在皮质的早期加工阶段。然而，其对神经元活动速度的影响尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们使用了脑磁图（MEG）来研究触觉刺激是否会影响听觉稳态反应（ASSRs）。为此，在700 ms时将0.5 ms的电脉冲随机施加到12名健康志愿者的左或右背部，同时将75 ms的25 ms纯音序列施加到左侧或右侧，以保持噪声。 1200毫秒 测量了40 Hz ASSR的峰值潜伏期。我们的结果表明，触觉刺激显着缩短了随后的ASSR潜伏期。在触觉刺激发生后约50毫秒至125毫秒观察到这种交叉模式效应。似乎融合在听觉系统上的体感信息可能是在早期处理阶段出现的，而ASSR等待时间的减少表明，来自交叉模式输入的新感官事件有助于提高正在进行的感官处理的速度。总体而言，我们的发现表明，ASSR潜伏期变化是加速处理的敏感指标。