Multisensor integration in biological systems

The authors discuss the integration of sensory information in biological systems. In particular, they consider the structure in vertebrate animals that utilizes multiple sensory inputs to orient the sensor platform, i.e. the body or the head, toward objects of interest. This structure is known as the optic tectum in lower vertebrates and the superior colliculus in mammals. The representation of the various sensory modalities on the tectum follows the maplike image format of the retina. This requires in some cases a considerable transformation from the original representation of the sensory input available from the other sensors. As an example, the authors present a detailed discussion of the visual/acoustic object localization system of the barn owl along with a model for the adaptive coregistration of the coordinate systems of the visual and acoustic maps on the tectum.<>