Auditory-visual interactions in depth: A psychophysical and electrical neuroimaging study

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Auditory-visual interactions in depth: A psychophysical and electrical neuroimaging study Celine Cappe1* and M.M Murray1, 2 1 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Switzerland 2 Center for Biomedical Imaging of Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland Multisensory interactions are a fundamental feature of brain organization facilitating behaviour and enhancing sensory-cognitive processes. To date, the overwhelming majority of studies have investigated the ‘spatial rule’ of multisensory processing using spatial variation in azimuth. There is comparatively sparse evidence concerning multisensory integration of spatial cues in depth. Depth cues convey meaningful signals such as looming/approaching and recession that will inform an organism of impending dangers/collisions. Previous studies suggest that unisensory looming stimuli receive a processing advantage over receding stimuli and that multisensory integration in depth may be limited to looming stimuli. The present study addressed these issues in humans. Participants were presented with looming, receding, or constant intensity stimuli that were visual, auditory, or multisensory. Their task was to indicate, irrespective of sensory modality, whether they perceived a change in distance/movement. All multisensory stimulus conditions facilitated performance relative to their constituent unisensory conditions, irrespective of whether the perceived motion was in the same or different directions. Consistent with integrative processes, facilitation in all cases exceeded predictions based on probability summation. Multisensory benefits were further enhanced for looming stimuli over all other conditions. Paralleling the psychophysical results, the preliminary electrical neuroimaging analyses indicate that non-linear response interactions manifested ~60ms post-stimulus onset for both looming and constant conditions, whereas such effects were delayed until ~125ms for the receding condition. Moreover, integrative effects for the looming condition appeared more robust than those for the constant condition. These results suggest that looming stimuli benefit from facilitated interactions, which may in turn serve as a means for enhanced allocation of processing resources and/or attention to potential dangers/threats in the environment. Conference: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Abstracts Citation: Cappe C and Murray M (2008). Auditory-visual interactions in depth: A psychophysical and electrical neuroimaging study. Conference Abstract: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.279 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 09 Dec 2008; Published Online: 09 Dec 2008. * Correspondence: Celine Cappe, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland, celine.cappe@cerco.ups-tlse.fr Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Celine Cappe M.M Murray Google Celine Cappe M.M Murray Google Scholar Celine Cappe M.M Murray PubMed Celine Cappe M.M Murray Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.