The impact of visual movement on auditory cortical responses: a magnetoencephalographic study

We developed a visual 3D model of a space module and analyzed whether activity in the auditory cortex is influenced by rotating the image using magnetoencephalography. We presented 1,000 Hz pure tone as an auditory stimulus in four different visual conditions: (1) RR: a virtual image rotated around the center, (2) VR: images rotated vertically, (3) HR: images rotated horizontally and (4) ST: the images did not rotate. We compared the difference in the auditory evoked component among the conditions. The dipoles were estimated to lie in Heschl’s gyrus. The dipole moment was significantly larger for RR and VR than for ST in the right hemisphere. Investigating the inter-hemispheric differences in each visual condition, the dipole moments for RR and VR were significantly larger in the right hemisphere than the left hemisphere. Auditory activity was influenced by visual movement inducing self-motion perception and the effect of such visual movement on the auditory cortex was right-dominant.