Abnormal multisensory integration in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Giurgola, Serena Casati, Carlotta Stampatori, Chiara Perucca, Laura Mattioli, Flavia Vallar, Giuseppe Bolognini, Nadia
Abstract	Temporal Binding Window (TBW) represents a reliable index of efficient multisensory integration process, which allows individuals to infer which sensory inputs from different modalities pertain to the same event. TBW alterations have been reported in some neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders and seem to negatively affects cognition and behavior. So far, it is still unknown whether deficits of multisensory integration, as indexed by an abnormal TBW, are present even in Multiple Sclerosis. We addressed this issue by testing 25 participants affected by relapsing–remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) and 30 age-matched healthy controls. Participants completed a simultaneity judgment task (SJ2) to assess the audio-visual TBW; two unimodal SJ2 versions were used as control tasks. Individuals with RRMS showed an enlarged audio-visual TBW (width range = from − 166 ms to + 198 ms), as compared to healthy controls (width range = − 177/ + 66 ms), thus showing an increased tendency to integrate temporally asynchronous visual and auditory stimuli. Instead, simultaneity perception of unimodal (visual or auditory) events overall did not differ from that of controls. These results provide first evidence of a selective deficit of multisensory integration in individuals affected by RRMS, besides the well-known motor and cognitive impairments. The reduced multisensory temporal acuity is likely caused by a disruption of the neural interplay between different sensory systems caused by multiple sclerosis.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC8918188&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	00144819
Journal	Experimental Brain Research [Exp Brain Res]
Volume Number	240
DOI	10.1007/s00221-022-06310-0
PubMed Central reference number	PMC8918188
Issue Number	3
PubMed reference number	35094114
e-ISSN	14321106
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2022-01-30
Publisher Place	Berlin/Heidelberg
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2022
Subject Keyword	Multisensory integration Multiple sclerosis Temporal binding window Sensory processing Auditory Visual
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Neuroscience