ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Perception Science
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1599114
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the Neural Mechanisms of Sensory-Cognitive Associations: Bridging Sensory Perception and Higher Cognitive FunctionsView all 6 articles
Effects of visual spatial frequency on audiovisual interaction: An event-related potential study
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Artificial Intelligence, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, China
- 2College of Humanities and Management, Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guizhou, China
- 3Department of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
- 4Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama, Okayama, Japan
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Spatial frequency, as a fundamental feature of visual signals, has been found to modulate audiovisual integration behavior, but the underlying neural mechanisms are unknown. The current study utilized the high temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how visual spatial frequency modulates audiovisual integration. We employed a visual orientation discrimination task and manipulated the spatial frequency of visual stimuli under three conditions. Our results showed that the influence of visual spatial frequency on audiovisual integration was a dynamic process. The earliest audiovisual integration occurred over the left temporal-occipital regions in the early sensory stage (60-90 ms) for high spatial frequency conditions but was absent for low and middle spatial frequency conditions. Additionally, audiovisual integration over fronto-central regions was delayed as spatial frequency increased (from 230-260 ms to 260-320 ms). The integration effect was also observed over parietal and occipital regions at 350-380 ms, with its strength progressively weakening at higher spatial frequencies. These discrepancies in the temporal and spatial distributions of audiovisual integration imply that spatial frequency plays different roles in early sensory and late cognitive integration. The results offer the first neural demonstration that spatial frequency modulates audiovisual integration, providing a basis for studying complex multisensory integration, particularly in the semantic and emotional domains.
Keywords: spatial frequency, visual orientation discrimination, Audiovisual integration, early sensory stage, late cognitive stage, Event-related potentials
Received: 24 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Ren, Hao, Yang, Wu, Yang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Meng Wang, School of Artificial Intelligence, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, China
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