Early audiovisual integration in target processing under continuous noise: Behavioral and EEG evidence

Abstract

Multisensory integration is interconnected across various information reception. The stage and mechanism of brain response to audiovisual integration have not been fully understood. In this study, we designed audiovisual and unisensory experiments to investigate task performance and electrophysiological characteristics associated with audiovisual integration in a continuous background interference environment using materials collected from the underwater environment. Behavioral results showed that the reaction time (RT) was shorter, and the accuracy was higher in the audiovisual experiment. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) results of RT indicated that audiovisual integration supported the co-activation model. Event-related potential (ERP) results revealed shorter latency of the P1 and N1 components in the audiovisual experiment. Microstate analysis indicated that the parietal-occipital area may play a key role in audiovisual integration. Moreover, event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) results demonstrated the critical role of low-frequency oscillation in audiovisual integration at the early stage. Our findings support the view that the beneficial effect of audiovisual integration is predominantly upon the early stage of neural information processing, including task-independent information.