Facing discrepancies in the sensory environment, multisensory information is combined in the medial superior parietal cortex to guide immediate judgements and to also adjust subsequent unisensory perception.
During speech perception, if auditory speech is not informative the frontal cortex will enhance responses in visual regions that represent the mouth of the talker to improve perception.
Pre-verbal infants demonstrate an implicit sensitivity to interoceptive sensations, which fluctuates spontaneously during emotional processing and guides audiovisual preferences in the environment.
Behavioral pharmacology and molecular biology reveal a translational control mechanism underlying auditory imprinting and structural plasticity that can be pharmacologically manipulated to reopen the critical period.