The Effect of Spatial Consistence on Multisensory Integration in a Divided Attention Task

Abstract

The human brain is the most complex and efficient information processing system in nature. Most of the information obtained by the human brain originates from both the visual and auditory pathways. However, few data was acquired about the relationship between audiovisual interaction and spatial locations of audiovisual stimul. Here, we investigated the multisensory integration of audiovisual stimuli presented on consistency and inconsistency spatial locations. The experiment required the subjects to pay attention to the stimuli of visual and auditory channels and to respond to the target stimulation. Through comparative analysis of experimental results, it has been found that under the condition of divided attention, the multisensory stimuli promoted the response regardless of whether the positions were consistent or not. But the integration effect induced by spatially consistent multisensory stimuli was stronger than that inconsistent.That was to say, the consistency of space affects the multisensory integration. This was of great significance for the development of robotics and human-computer interaction technologies.