[3][4][5] Newer research has shown that these different regions of the brain may not be solely responsible for only one sensory modality, but could use multiple inputs to perceive what the body senses about its environment.
Multisensory integration is necessary for almost every activity that we perform because the combination of multiple sensory inputs is essential for us to comprehend our surroundings.
It has been believed for some time that inputs from different sensory organs are processed in different areas in the brain, relating to systems neuroscience.
For example, regions in the occipital cortex are tied to vision and those on the superior temporal gyrus are recipients of auditory inputs.
There exist studies suggesting deeper multisensory convergences than those at the sensory-specific cortices, which were listed earlier.
These include the five classic senses of vision (sight), audition (hearing), tactile stimulation (touch), olfaction (smell), and gustation (taste).
From the earliest times of neurology, it has been thought that these lobes are solely responsible for their one sensory modality input.
While performing these tests, they discovered that the functional maps of the sensory and motor cortices were similar in all patients.
[15] Current research in the fields of sensory processing and multisensory integration is aiming to hopefully unlock the mysteries behind the concept of brain lateralization.
This multisensory integration was necessary for early humans in order to ensure that they were receiving proper nutrition from their food, and also to make sure that they were not consuming poisonous materials.
[citation needed] There are several other sensory integrations that developed early on in the human evolutionary time line.
Integration between vision and tactile sensations developed along with our finer motor skills including better hand-eye coordination.
Visual stimuli are recorded directly onto the retina, and there are few, if any, external distortions that provide incorrect information to the brain about the true location of an object.
There have been studies done that show that a dynamic neural mechanism exists for matching the auditory and visual inputs from an event that stimulates multiple senses.
When you are speaking with someone or watching something happen, auditory and visual signals are not being processed concurrently, but they are perceived as being simultaneous.
[21] This kind of multisensory integration can lead to slight misperceptions in the visual-auditory system in the form of the ventriloquism effect.
This occurs because of a pre-existing spatial representation within the brain which is programmed to think that voices come from another human's mouth.
All of these actions are culminating to the formation of spatial maps in the brain and the realization that "Hey, that thing that's moving this object is actually a part of me."
Seeing the same thing that they are feeling is a major step in the mapping that is required for infants to begin to realize that they can move their arms and interact with an object.
For example, we do not currently have the understanding needed to comprehend how neural circuits transform sensory cues into changes in motor activities.