Event-related potential (ERP) evidence for the existence
of cross-modal links in endogenous spatial attention
between vision and touch was obtained in an experiment
where participants had to detect tactile or visual targets
on the attended side and to ignore the irrelevant modality
and stimuli on the unattended side. For visual ERPs, attentional
modulations of occipital P1 and N1 components were present
when attention was directed both within vision and within
touch, indicating that links in spatial attention from
touch to vision can affect early stages of visual processing.
For somatosensory ERPs, attentional negativities starting
around 140 ms poststimulus were present at midline and
lateral central electrodes when touch was relevant. No
attentional somatosensory ERP modulations were present
when vision was relevant and tactile stimuli could be entirely
ignored. However, in another task condition where responses
were also required to infrequent tactile targets regardless
of their location, visual-spatial attention modulated somatosensory
ERPs. Unlike vision, touch apparently can be decoupled
from attentional orienting within another modality unless
it is potentially relevant.