About this Research Topic
1) Multisensory signals are first input via various receptors and processed independently. This topic includes questions about how multisensory signals are integrated or segregated, and how the way of integration or segregation is affected by past experiences.
2) Different types of information are processed in separate brain regions or pathways. For example, dorsal and ventral visual pathways are classically known to serve different processes. Association between different types of information is critical especially when multiple events occur in the external world. This is because there are multiple possible associative combinations in this case. This topic includes questions about how the association between different properties within a single modality (e.g., “what”, “when”, and “where”) are formed, and how its manner changes depending on past experiences.
3) Actions produce outcomes, and the outcomes provide sensory signals. This topic also includes the association between action-related signals (e.g., motor command, intention) and the sensory signals of their outcomes.
4) Reward-based learning is providing another series of hot topics in the recent neuroscience literature. The other type of information that could be taken into account thus is the value. The mechanisms similar to those involved in the integration of multisensory information may also be contributing to reward-based learning. Mathematical frameworks such as the Bayesian integration theory or the signal detection theory could be a key to better understanding this specific form of learning.
This Research Topic will focus on the mechanisms by which the relationship between multiple types of information are processed (rather than specialized mechanisms for processing a single type of information). Original papers using any kind of methodology (psychophysics, physiology, pharmacology, imaging, mathematical theory, and so on) and review or opinion papers are all welcome. We hope that this topic will provide an exciting opportunity to discuss novel and fanciful ideas about the processing of multiple types of information and its underlying neural mechanisms.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.