Electrical activity in visual cortex associated with combined auditory and visual stimulation in temporal sequences known to be associated with a visual illusion

When a subject views a visual stimulus paired with a brief click, a second click occurring similar to80 ms later produces the hallucination of a second visual stimulus. We have used combinations of visual and sound stimuli to evoke cortical activity and have recorded the associated event-related potentials. We have recorded EPs in a conventional manner, and have calculated from multichannel recordings the Laplacian derivations to determine if the currents were generated in primary visual cortex. Clicks alone do not cause significant activity in V1, but if paired with pattern stimulation, modify the evoked potential. The timing of this extra activity almost certainly excludes "feed back" activation from higher centres, and can most simply be explained if sound-activated thalamo-cortical input can rapidly produce extra activity in 'primed' visual cortex. This finding has general implications for cortical function, for the generation of the hallucination and for 'blindsight'. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.