The way a primitive auditory structure in the brain processes visual information may explain how we are fooled by thrown voices
If you watched football or the final game of the World Series yesterday, you may have noticed the following: When the announcers were speaking on camera, it seemed as though the sound of their voices were coming from their mouths. But when the commentary occurred off-screen as the game action was shown, it was quite apparent the TV speakers were the actual sound source of the endless color-commentary babble.
This processing phenomenon in which a visual cue affects how one perceives an auditory stimulus—ventriloquism is another example—may be explained by new research that pinpointed neurons in a primitive brain area that responds to both visual and auditory information. This area, the
inferior colliculus region in the midbrain, less than half an inch in diameter, is a way station for nearly all auditory signals as they travel from the ear to the cortex
clipped from: www.sciam.com