ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES OF CROSS-SENSORY INTERACTION IN THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM,

The development of modern weapons and related training devices often results in the production of man-machine systems in which the human must operate controls in response to information obtained through visual and auditory channels. The human operator is placed in many military situations where sensory interactions can occur between the visual and auditory systems, since an operator must simultaneously monitor a visual display and listen to one or more incoming messages. The known anatomical connections between the auditory and visual-sensory systems within the central nervous system would lead one to expect the occurrence of cross-sensory interactions, i.e., where the stimulation of visual sensory system would affect the perception of a stimulus presented to the auditory sensory system. The present research was conducted to provide electrophysiological evidence of cross-sensory nteractions and to investigate the physiological mechanisms responsible for the filtering process that controls sensory input to the central nervous system.