Neuronal modeling of cross-sensory visual evoked magnetoencephalography responses in auditory cortex

Previous studies have demonstrated that auditory cortex activity can be influenced by cross-sensory visual inputs. Intracortical laminar recordings in non-human primates have suggested a feedforward (FF) type profile for auditory evoked but feedback (FB) type for visual evoked activity in the auditory cortex. To test whether cross-sensory visual evoked activity in the auditory cortex is associated with FB inputs also in humans, we analyzed magnetoencephalography (MEG) responses from eight human subjects (six females) evoked by simple auditory or visual stimuli. In the estimated MEG source waveforms for auditory cortex regions of interest, auditory evoked response showed peaks at 37 and 90 ms and visual evoked response at 125 ms. The inputs to the auditory cortex were modeled through FF- and FB-type connections targeting different cortical layers using the Human Neocortical Neurosolver (HNN), which links cellular- and circuit-level mechanisms to MEG signals. HNN modeling suggested that the experimentally observed auditory response could be explained by an FF input followed by an FB input, whereas the cross-sensory visual response could be adequately explained by just an FB input. Thus, the combined MEG and HNN results support the hypothesis that cross-sensory visual input in the auditory cortex is of FB type. The results also illustrate how the dynamic patterns of the estimated MEG source activity can provide information about the characteristics of the input into a cortical area in terms of the hierarchical organization among areas. Significance statement Laminar intracortical profiles characterize feedforward- and feedback-type inputs to a cortical area. By combining magnetoencephalography (MEG) and biophysical computational neural modeling, we obtained evidence of cross-sensory visual evoked activity in the human auditory cortex driven by feedback-type input. The finding is consistent with previous intracortical recordings in non-human primates. The results illustrate how patterns of MEG source activity can be interpreted in the context of the hierarchical organization among cortical areas.