Crossmodal attention and multisensory integration in the human brain

The applicants have presented regularly at major public science events (e.g. New Frontiers in Science Exhibition at the Royal Society; British Association for Advancement of Science); have given scientific lectures to open audiences (e.g. at Royal Society, and at College-de-France); while their MRC-funded multisensory research that led up to this application has been featured on national television news, on national and international radio, and in national and international newspapers and magazines. Driver also frequently presents to Stroke Association meetings and other patient clubs. Both applicants are committed to public engagement, and will continue this approach with the present research. As a newly elected FMedSci, Driver will also pursue further public engagement via the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Attention and multisensory integration are important fields in basic and clinical research, that our previous MRC programme brought together successfully for the first time. The proposed work builds on this platform to address fundamental issues about neural mechanisms, using combined methods (psychophysics, fMRI, ERP/EEG, TMS, lesion analysis and neuropsychology) in normals and patients. We shall investigate the causal influence of putative multimodal attentional control structures in the brain on processing in unimodal sensory cortices, for vision, touch and audition; the impact of disruption to multisensory structures, via lesion or TMS, on performance and on fMRI and ERP activity in remote but interconnected unimodal sensory regions; the role of visual experience in shaping crossmodal spatial attention, as assessed in blind populations; and the multisensory impact of new treatments for deficits in spatial attention following stroke.