Motor congruency and multisensory integration jointly facilitate visual information processing before movement execution

J A Elshout,T C W Nijboer,N Van Der Stoep,S Van Der Stigchel

doi:10.1007/s00221-019-05714-9

Abstract

Attention allows us to select important sensory information and enhances sensory information processing. Attention and our motor system are tightly coupled: attention is shifted to the target location before a goal-directed eye- or hand movement is executed. Congruent eye–hand movements to the same target can boost the effect of this pre-movement shift of attention. Moreover, visual information processing can be enhanced by, for example, auditory input presented in spatial and temporal proximity of visual input via multisensory integration (MSI). In this study, we investigated whether the combination of MSI and motor congruency can synergistically enhance visual information processing beyond what can be observed using motor congruency alone. Participants performed congruent eye- and hand movements during a 2-AFC visual discrimination task. The discrimination target was presented in the planning phase of the movements at the movement target location or a movement irrelevant location. Three conditions were compared: (1) a visual target without sound, (2) a visual target with sound spatially and temporally aligned (MSI) and (3) a visual target with sound temporally misaligned (no MSI). Performance was enhanced at the movement-relevant location when congruent motor actions and MSI coincide compared to the other conditions. Congruence in the motor system and MSI together therefore lead to enhanced sensory information processing beyond the effects of motor congruency alone, before a movement is executed. Such a synergy implies that the boost of attention previously observed for the independent factors is not at ceiling level, but can be increased even further when the right conditions are met.

Highlights

The pre-motor theory of attention (PMT) postulates that attention is directed to a movement end location when a goal-directed motor action is planned (Rizzolatti et al 1987)
Together our findings show that congruence in the motor system and multisensory integration (MSI) together lead to enhanced sensory information processing before a movement is executed
In the current study we investigated whether congruence in the motor system and MSI can jointly enhance visual information processing before movement execution

Summary

Introduction

The pre-motor theory of attention (PMT) postulates that attention is directed to a movement end location when a goal-directed motor action (e.g. an eye movement) is planned (Rizzolatti et al 1987). Several studies have shown that spatial attention is shifted to the target location before an eye movement or reach movement is executed Whether different effectors of the motor system have independent resources for directing attention, is still under debate. Whereas some studies found that the eye movement system is dominant during visual guided reaching (Khan et al 2011), other studies have shown that congruent eyeand reach movements to different targets can be executed with parallel distribution of attention to both targets (Hanning et al 2018; Jonikaitis and Deubel 2011). Combined eye- and hand movements executed to a common target result in a boost of attention towards that location,

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Results

Conclusion