Abstract
Multisensory integration research has allowed us to better understand how humans integrate sensory information to produce a unitary experience of the external world. However, this field is often challenged by the limited ability to deliver and control sensory stimuli, especially when going beyond audio–visual events and outside laboratory settings. In this review, we examine the scope and challenges of new technology in the study of multisensory integration in a world that is increasingly characterized as a fusion of physical and digital/virtual events. We discuss multisensory integration research through the lens of novel multisensory technologies and, thus, bring research in human–computer interaction, experimental psychology, and neuroscience closer together. Today, for instance, displays have become volumetric so that visual content is no longer limited to 2D screens, new haptic devices enable tactile stimulation without physical contact, olfactory interfaces provide users with smells precisely synchronized with events in virtual environments, and novel gustatory interfaces enable taste perception through levitating stimuli. These technological advances offer new ways to control and deliver sensory stimulation for multisensory integration research beyond traditional laboratory settings and open up new experimentations in naturally occurring events in everyday life experiences. Our review then summarizes these multisensory technologies and discusses initial insights to introduce a bridge between the disciplines in order to advance the study of multisensory integration.
Highlights
We perceive the world through multiple senses by collecting different sensory cues that are integrated or segregated in our brain to interact with our environment (Shams and Beierholm, 2011)
The set of novel digital interfaces and devices that we review exemplifies technological advances in multisensory stimulation and their associated opportunities and limitations for research on multisensory integration
The ultimate aim of this review is to introduce a bridge between disciplines and encourage future development and collaboration between the engineers developing the technologies and scientists from psychology and neuroscience studying multisensory integration
Summary
We perceive the world through multiple senses by collecting different sensory cues that are integrated or segregated in our brain to interact with our environment (Shams and Beierholm, 2011). We live in a time in which technology is ubiquitous, which means that delivering, measuring, and assessing multisensory signals in daily life can be facilitated We have selected these particular technologies to highlight their potential to advance the study of multisensory integration by offering precision and controllability and by enabling more natural study environments beyond desktop-based experiments. With this focus, we aim to examine opportunities that permit studies to take place over time (e.g., longitudinal studies) or outside a laboratory (e.g., at home) while still being precise. We first introduce the emerging technology and benefits for individual sensory modalities, we discuss and exemplify how it can aid multisensory integration research, and we further highlight how they can be integrated dynamically into multisensory paradigms, i.e., by capitalizing on the different technologies as modules to conduct studies involving multiple senses
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