Expertise with multisensory events eliminates the effect of biological motion rotation on audiovisual synchrony perception

Abstract

Biological motion, in the form of point-light displays, is usually less recognizable and coherent when shown from a less natural orientation, and evidence of this disruption was recently extended to audiovisual aspects of biological motion perception. In the present study, eight drummers and eight musical novices were required to judge either the audiovisual simultaneity or the temporal order of the movements of a drumming point-light display and the resulting sound. The drumming biological motion was presented either in its upright orientation or rotated by 90, 180, or 270 degrees. Our results support and extend previous findings demonstrating that although the rotation of the point-light display affects the audiovisual aspects of biological motion, this effect disappears when experience with the represented multisensory action is increased through practice.