Abstract
For a comprehensive understanding of the environment, the brain must constantly decide whether the incoming information originates from the same source and needs to be integrated into a coherent percept. This integration process is believed to be mediated by temporal integration windows. If presented with temporally asynchronous stimuli for a few minutes, the brain adapts to this new temporal relation by recalibrating the temporal integration windows. Such recalibration can occur even more rapidly after exposure to just a single trial of asynchronous stimulation. While rapid recalibration has been demonstrated for audio–visual stimuli, evidence for rapid recalibration of visuo–tactile stimuli is lacking. Here, we investigated rapid recalibration in the visuo–tactile domain. Subjects received visual and tactile stimuli with different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) and were asked to report whether the visuo–tactile stimuli were presented simultaneously. Our results demonstrate visuo–tactile rapid recalibration by revealing that subjects’ simultaneity reports were modulated by the temporal order of stimulation in the preceding trial. This rapid recalibration effect, however, was only significant if the SOA in the preceding trial was smaller than 100 ms, while rapid recalibration could not be demonstrated for SOAs larger than 100 ms. Since rapid recalibration in the audio–visual domain has been demonstrated for SOAs larger than 100 ms, we propose that visuo–tactile recalibration works at shorter SOAs, and thus faster time scales than audio–visual rapid recalibration.
Highlights
Our sensory systems permanently receive multiple bits of information from complex natural events
Subjects showed the lowest number of simultaneity reports for the largest stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) (± 300 ms) and a peak of simultaneity reports at the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS, Fig. 2A)
After an adaptation phase of sustained repetitive stimulation with asynchronous multisensory stimuli, the brain adapts by reducing the perceived stimulus onset synchrony (SOA) between the two asynchronous stimuli. This so-called temporal recalibration has been found for audio–visual, audio–tactile, and visuo–tactile stimuli (Fujisaki et al 2004; Hanson et al 2008)
Summary
Our sensory systems permanently receive multiple bits of information from complex natural events. To generate a coherent perception of our environment, the brain must constantly decide whether the input comes from the same source and need to be integrated to a single perceptual event. If the information originates from multiple, different sources, the sensory input needs to be segregated into multiple separate perceptual events. The brain can use information about temporal structure or rhythmicity as predictive cues for sensory integration (Luo and Poeppel 2007; Vroomen and Stekelenburg 2010). Such findings led to the hypothesis of temporal integration windows for multisensory perception (Pöppel 1997; van Wassenhove et al 2007). If multiple stimuli fall within an integration window, they will be integrated and lead to a coherent perception of a single event
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