Responding appropriately in social contexts depends on the integration of emotional information from multiple sensory organs into a coherent construct of a situation. Research has identified a multisensory integration network of anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG), fusiform gyrus (FG), and amygdala (AMY; Pehrs et al., 2014; Pehrs et al. 2015). In the present study, largely based on Pehrs et al. (2014), two groups saw sad or happy film clips during fMRI scanning, coupled with alternating sad, happy or no music. The imaging results demonstrated increased STG activity during happy music and increased activity in default mode network (DMN) related areas during sad music. Incongruent audiovisual presentations were associated with increased activity in inferior temporal gyrus/temporal pole (ITG/TP) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The involvement of the aSTG-FG-AMY network in multisensory integration of emotional information was demonstrated with emotion-specific changes in connectivity. Congruent presentations of happy music and film were associated with increased coupling strength from FG to AMY, in contrast to previous findings of decreased coupling strength in the congruent condition (Pehrs et al., 2014). Sad visual stimuli produced increased network connectivity independent of the music, suggesting an increased information flow from AMY to FG, with aSTG as a mediator. Resting state data revealed attenuated connectivity between dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the posterior default mode network (DMN) in the group that had watched the sad film clips, showing enduring effects of emotional audiovisual stimuli on resting state activity
