Sensory integration in rat cerebral cortex border regions

¶ … cerebral cortex, using rats. The researchers noted that there were two beliefs about the areas of the cerebral cortex dedicated to the five senses. Some believed that information came in from each sense separately and was not combined immediately. However, other research suggested that activating one sense area could also activate others. In the research, the scientists mapped the cerebral cortices of rats for sight, sound and touch.

The researchers found that while specific areas were dedicated to one or another sense only, in the areas bordering between two senses, both senses could be stimulated at once. They suspect that these border areas may explain why one sense may develop more strongly if another sense is lost. For instance, if a person becomes blind, their sense of hearing may become more acute and discriminative. The research also suggests that the brain may combine information from multiple senses much sooner in the process than previously thought.

The researchers pointed out that we live in a very multisensory world, with lots of sights, sounds, smells, etc. around us. How the brain processes all that information can tell us a lot about how we perceive and think about the world.