Multimodal Integration

Synonyms

Crossmodal integration; Multisensory integration; Intermodal; Heteromodal; Polymodal; Supramodal

Definition

Multimodal (or multisensory) integration refers to the neural integration or combination of information from different sensory modalities (the classic five senses of vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, and, perhaps less obviously, proprioception, kinesthesis, pain, and the vestibular senses), which gives rise to changes in behavior associated with the perception of and reaction to those stimuli [1,2]. Information is typically integrated across sensory modalities when the sensory inputs share certain common features. For example, although vision is concerned with a certain frequency band of the electromagnetic energy spectrum, and hearing is concerned with changes in pressure at the ears, stimulus features such as spatial location, movement, intensity, timing, and duration, as well as other higher-order features such as meaning and identity can apply equally to...