Cognitive conflict in audiovisual integration: an event-related potential study

This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of cognitive conflict in audiovisual integration during an audiovisual task. ERP analyses revealed: (i) the anterior N1 and P1 were elicited in both matched and mismatched conditions and (ii) audiovisual mismatched answers elicited a more negative ERP deflection at 490 ms (N490) than matched answers. Dipole analysis of the difference wave (mismatched minus matched) localized the generator of the N490 to the posterior cingulate cortex, which may be involved in the control and modulation of conflict processing of Chinese characters when visual and auditory information is mismatched.