Multisensory Integration and Neural Oscillations: Evidence from Clinical, Pain-related, and Audiovisual Perception Studies

Daniel Senkowski (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin)

Neural oscillations play an important role in the processing of sensory information, and an increasing body of literature has suggested an involvement of neural oscillations in multisensory integration. In this talk, I will present recent data focusing on the following research questions: (i) Is there a specific role of gamma-band oscillations in audiovisual perception? (i) Do altered neural oscillations contribute to abnormal multisensory processing in schizophrenia? (iii) What is the role of neural oscillations for the crossmodal shaping of pain? Our data provide strong evidence for the role of neural oscillations in multisensory integration. I will discuss future avenues in this promising new research field.

Daniel Senkowski is Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where he leads the research group Multisensory Integration (multisensorymind.com). Following his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, he conducted his postdoctoral work at the laboratories of Professor John J. Foxe (Albert Einstein College, New York) and Professor Andreas K. Engel (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf). Professor Senkowski has published several influential studies in the field of multisensory processing and neural oscillations using EEG and MEG. His recent research focuses on the crossmodal shaping of pain and the role of neural oscillations for altered multisensory processing in schizophrenia.