Ms Stimulus Onset Asynchrony Research Articles

P3-5: Temporal Interactions between Binocular Inputs in Visual Evoked-Potentials

The interaction between neural activity driven by inputs through the two eyes were examined using visual evoked-potentials (VEP) in normal human subjects. VEP recordings were obtained at the occipital electrodes using binocularly asynchronous pattern-reversal checkerboard stimuli: The patter-reversal times for the two eyes differed by 0, ±50, ±150, or ±350 ms, with the positive stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) meaning that the right-eye reversal occurred first. For comparison, monocular VEPs were also obtained using trial conditions where the checkerboard pattern-reversals were shown to only one eye, while a blank field to the other. The VEPs of the various trial conditions were analyzed using both temporal and frequency analysis methods. Three observations were made: First, the N75 amplitude was significantly reduced in the ±50 ms SOA conditions. Second, on ±150 ms and ± ms SOA conditions, a negative potential was observed over the period when the stimuli were binocularly incongruent. Third, the alpha-ban...

Facilitatory effects of an auditory warning stimulus in a visual location identification task and a visual shape identification task

The occurrence of a weak auditory warning stimulus increases the speed of the response to a subsequent visual target stimulus that must be identified. This facilitatory effect has been attributed to the temporal expectancy automatically induced by the warning stimulus. It has not been determined whether this results from a modulation of the stimulus identification process, the response selection process or both. The present study examined these possibilities. A group of 12 young adults performed a reaction time location identification task and another group of 12 young adults performed a reaction time shape identification task. A visual target stimulus was presented 1850 to 2350 ms plus a fixed interval (50, 100, 200, 400, 800, or 1600 ms, depending on the block) after the appearance of a fixation point, on its left or right side, above or below a virtual horizontal line passing through it. In half of the trials, a weak auditory warning stimulus (S1) appeared 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, or 1600 ms (according to the block) before the target stimulus (S2). Twelve trials were run for each condition. The S1 produced a facilitatory effect for the 200, 400, 800, and 1600 ms stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) in the case of the side stimulus-response (S-R) corresponding condition, and for the 100 and 400 ms SOA in the case of the side S-R non-corresponding condition. Since these two conditions differ mainly by their response selection requirements, it is reasonable to conclude that automatic temporal expectancy influences the response selection process.

Automatic integration of auditory and visual information is not simultaneous in Chinese

ERP studies have revealed that for alphabetic languages letter/speech-sound integration develops with brain maturation and reading instruction over a relatively long period of time. Experienced adult readers associate letters and speech sounds automatically, as indexed by enhanced mismatch negativity (MMN) to simultaneously presented stimuli, but reveal attenuated MMN when the speech sound stimuli are presented with a delay. Chinese as a logographic language differs substantially from alphabetic languages and therefore integration processes might be characterized by unique timing mechanisms. In the present study, MMN was used to investigate the timing and automaticity of association between characters and lexical tones in adult native Chinese speakers. A character was presented simultaneously with a lexical tone, or with either a 100ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) or a 200ms SOA in separate conditions. MMN was enhanced when the character and the lexical tone were presented with 100ms SOA, while no significant MMN enhancement was observed with simultaneous presentation or with 200ms SOA. These results suggest that the automatic association of characters and lexical tones in experienced Chinese adult readers requires more processing time than for alphabetic languages. These results highlight critical differences between fundamental reading processes across different writing systems. The neural differences between alphabetic and logographic languages for letter/character and speech-sound/tone integration need to be taken into consideration when considering past and future research on reading processes in these languages and especially for investigations of reading disorders, such as developmental dyslexia.

Effects of ADORA2A gene variation and caffeine on prepulse inhibition: A multi-level risk model of anxiety

The complex pathogenesis of anxiety and panic disorder in particular has been suggested to be influenced by genetic factors such as the adenosine A2A receptor gene (ADORA2A) 1976T>C polymorphism (rs5751876) as well as neuropsychological factors such as early information processing deficits. In 114 healthy individuals (males=57, females=57) controlled for anxiety sensitivity (AS), a multi-level risk model of the development of anxiety was applied: Genetic (ADORA2A 1976T>C variant) and biochemical (300 mg of caffeine citrate vs. placebo) factors were hypothesized to influence early information processing as measured by the prepulse inhibition/facilitation paradigm (stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 60, 120, 240, 480 and 2000ms between prepulses and startle stimuli). A fourfold interaction of genotype, intervention, gender, and SOAs was discerned. Stratification by SOAs revealed that at 120 ms and 240 ms SOAs in the caffeine condition, PPI was impaired in female ADORA2A 1976TT risk genotype carriers as compared to male ADORA2A 1976TT homozygotes, while no significant effects were observed in the ADORA2A 1976CC/CT non-risk genotype or placebo group. Only in high anxiety sensitive probands, a significant intervention effect was discerned with impaired prepulse facilitation (PPF) due to caffeine. The present results point to an impaired ability to selectively process very early information and to gate irrelevant sensory information, respectively, in female ADORA2A 1976TT homozygotes in response to caffeine, providing further evidence for the adenosinergic system to be involved in the pathogenesis of anxiety.

Anxiety and deficient inhibition of threat distractors: Spatial attention span and time course

We investigated whether anxiety facilitates detection of threat stimuli outside the focus of overt attention, and the time course of the interference produced by threat distractors. Threat or neutral word distractors were presented in attended (foveal) and unattended (parafoveal) locations followed by an unrelated probe word at 300 ms (Experiments 1 and 2) or 1000 ms (Experiment 2) stimulus–onset asynchrony (SOA) in a lexical decision task. Results showed: (1) no effects of trait anxiety on selective saccades to the parafoveal threat distractors; (2) interference with probe processing (i.e., slowed lexical decision times) following a foveal threat distractor at 300 ms SOA for all participants, regardless of anxiety, but only for high-anxiety participants at 1000 ms SOA; and (3) no interference effects of parafoveal threat distractors. These findings suggest that anxiety does not enhance preattentive semantic processing of threat words. Rather, anxiety leads to delays in the inhibitory control of attended task-irrelevant threat stimuli.

Finding the missing stimulus mismatch negativity (MMN): Emitted MMN to violations of an auditory gestalt

Deviations from repetitive auditory stimuli evoke a mismatch negativity (MMN). Counterintuitively, omissions of repetitive stimuli do not. Violations of patterns reflecting complex rules also evoke MMN. To detect a MMN to missing stimuli, we developed an auditory gestalt task using one stimulus. Groups of six pips (50 ms duration, 330 ms stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA], 400 trials), were presented with an intertrial interval (ITI) of 750 ms while subjects (n=16) watched a silent video. Occasional deviant groups had missing 4th or 6th tones (50 trials each). Missing stimuli evoked a MMN (p<.05). The missing 4th (-0.8 µV, p<.01) and the missing 6th stimuli (-1.1 µV, p<.05) were more negative than standard 6th stimuli (0.3 µV). MMN can be elicited by a missing stimulus at long SOAs by violation of a gestalt grouping rule. Patterned stimuli appear more sensitive to omissions and ITI than homogenous streams.

How word frequency modulates masked repetition priming: An ERP investigation

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to provide precise temporal information about the modulation of masked repetition priming effects × word frequency during the course of target word recognition. Contrary to the pattern seen with behavioral response times in prior research, we predicted that high-frequency words should generate larger and earlier peaking repetition priming effects than low-frequency words in the N400 time window. This prediction was supported by the results of two experiments. Furthermore, repetition priming effects in the N250 time window were found for low-frequency words in both experiments, whereas for high-frequency words these effects were seen only at the shorter (50 ms stimulus onset asynchrony [SOA]) used in Experiment 2, and not in Experiment 1 (70 ms SOA). We explain this pattern as resulting from reset mechanisms operating on the form representations activated by prime stimuli when primes and targets are processed as separate perceptual events.

Effects of acoustic complexity on processing sound intensity in 10‐ to 11‐year‐old children

The environmental complexity that sounds are presented in, as well as the stimulus presentation rate, influences how sound intensity is centrally encoded with differences between children and adults. Cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) comparison study in children and adults examining two stimulus rates and three different stimulus contexts. Twelve 10 and 11 year olds and 11 adults were studied in two experiments examining the CAEP to a 1-KHz, 50-ms tone. A Slow-Rate experiment at 750-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) compared the CAEPs of 78 dB to 86 dB SPL in 2 complexity conditions. A Fast-Rate experiment was performed at 125 ms SOA with the same conditions plus an additional complexity condition. Repeated measures and mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the latency and amplitude of the CAEP components. CAEP amplitudes and latencies were significantly affected by rate, intensity, and age with complexity interacting in multiple mixed-mode ANOVAs. P1 was the only CAEP component present at the Fast Rate. There were main effects of rate, age, and stimulus intensity level on the CAEP amplitudes and latencies. Maturational differences were seen in the interactions of intensity with complexity for the different CAEP components. Complexity of the sound environment was reflected in the relative amplitude of the CAEPs evoked by sound intensity. The effect of stimulus intensity depended on the complexity of the surrounding environment. Effects of the surrounding sounds were different in children than in adults.

Effects of acute aerobic exercise on exogenous spatial attention

Objectives This study investigates the effect of acute aerobic exercise on exogenous spatial attention and executive control. Designs and Method Participants performed an exogenous cueing discrimination task in three situations: at rest, while exercising, and immediately after exercising. The stimulus–response compatibility effect was also measured at each exercise condition. Results The results in the rest session showed the typical facilitation effect at the 100 ms Stimulus Onset Asynchrony (SOA) and the inhibition of return (IOR) effect at the 1000 SOA. While the facilitation effect was present in the three exercise conditions and there was not any significant difference in the magnitude of the effect between them, the IOR effect was significant only in the rest session. The stimulus–response compatibility effect was of a similar magnitude in the three exercise conditions. Conclusions This study demonstrates that, compared to a rest condition, an acute bout of aerobic exercise performed during or even immediately before the spatial task, modulates the deployment of exogenous spatial attention.

Nicotine effects on general semantic priming in Parkinson's disease.

In young healthy nonsmokers, effects of nicotine on semantic processing have been observed under strategy-based priming procedures but not under more general priming procedures (Holmes, Chenery, & Copland, 2008; Holmes, Chenery, & Copland, 2010). Effects of nicotine under general priming procedures, however, may be mediated by baseline priming levels that are below optimum such as when compromised by disease. Nicotinic mechanisms may be involved in the cognitive sequalae of Parkinson's disease (PD). Evidence suggests that semantic processing may be compromised in PD but the potential benefit of nicotinic stimulation is unknown. This study investigated the effects of nicotine on semantic processing in nonsmokers with PD (n = 12) and nonsmoking matched controls (n = 17) using general priming procedures. Specifically, an automatic priming task (0.15 relatedness proportion, RP, and 200 ms stimulus onset asynchrony, SOA) and a controlled priming task (0.8 RP and 1000 ms SOA) were used. Prime-target category relation (category related, noncategory related) was also manipulated. Transdermal nicotine patches (7 mg/24 h) were administered in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. For the automatic task, nicotine did not influence priming effects for PD. Unexpectedly, compromised automatic priming for controls was ameliorated. For the controlled task, nicotine influenced priming effects for PD but not controls. The patterns of priming and nicotine effects across the tasks suggest an age-related slowing of the rate of semantic activation for controls, which may be exacerbated in PD. Overall, the findings indicate that nicotine can improve compromised semantic processing in PD, and also influence semantic processing in healthy older individuals.

Influence of Near Threshold Visual Distractors on Perceptual Detection and Reaching Movements

Providing evidence against a dissociation between conscious vision for perception and unconscious vision for action, recent studies have suggested that perceptual and motor decisions are based on a unique signal but distinct decisional thresholds. The aim of the present study was to provide a direct test of this assumption in a perceptual-motor dual task involving arm movements. In 300 trials, 10 participants performed speeded pointing movements toward a highly visible target located at 10° from the fixation point and ± 45° from the body midline. The target was preceded by one or two close to threshold distractor(s) (80 ms stimulus onset asynchrony) presented ± 30° according to the target location. After each pointing movement, participants judged whether the distractor was present or not on either side of the target. Results showed a robust reaction time facilitation effect and a deviation toward the distractor when the distractor was both present and consciously perceived (Hit). A small reaction time facilitation was also observed when two distractors were physically present but undetected (double-miss)--this facilitation being highly correlated with the physical contrast of the distractors. These results are compatible with the theory proposing that perceptual and motor decisions are based on a common signal but emerge from a contrast dependent fixed threshold for motor responses and a variable context dependent criterion for perceptual responses. This paper thus extends to arm movement control previous findings related to oculomotor control.

The functional field of view becomes narrower while viewing negative emotional stimuli

We investigated how viewing positive and negative emotional stimuli influences the functional field of view. Two types of emotional pictures were used, representing either a negative emotion such as disgust or fear, or a positive emotion such vigour or excitement. The participants' task was to detect and identify a digit presented in any of the four corners of a picture on the display, while discriminating a letter in the centre of the display. We used two stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), of 500 and 3000 ms, between the picture and the digit. Performance was poorer in the negative condition than in the positive and non-emotional conditions. Performance in the 500 ms SOA condition was poorer than in the 3000 ms SOA condition. These results suggest that the functional field of view (FFOV) becomes narrower when people view negative emotional stimuli, whereas it does not change when viewing positive or neutral emotional stimuli.

Hemispheric Collaboration in Creative Subjects: Cross-Hemisphere Priming in a Lexical Decision Task

The literature provides 3 proposals regarding hemispheric involvement in the creative process: the right hemisphere is “more creative,” the 2 hemispheres are complementary, and the hemispheric collaboration model that argues that the 2 hemispheres function as a collaborative unit in a synergistic manner. This study tested the hemispheric collaboration model. Forty-eight participants completed the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, Figural and Verbal forms. The participants then performed a visual half-field lexical decision task at both a 50 milliseconds (ms) and 750 ms stimulus onset asynchrony in which the primes and targets were presented either ipsilaterally or contralaterally. Results revealed that individuals scoring high on creativity exhibit higher degrees of priming to contralateral presentation of prime-target pairs, while subjects scoring low on creativity exhibit increased priming to prime-target pairs presented to the left VF, right hemisphere. The results of the study support a hemispheric collaboration model of creative cognition and suggest a mechanism for hemispheric synthesis of the left- and right-hemisphere worldviews.

Stimulus timing dependent plasticity in high- and low-level vision

Event Abstract Back to Event Stimulus timing dependent plasticity in high- and low-level vision David B. McMahon1* and David A. Leopold1 1 National Institute of Mental Health, United States Object recognition in humans is extremely plastic, as evidenced by our ability to recognize and remember new faces after a few seconds of exposure. This form of visual learning is presumably mediated by experience dependent changes in synaptic efficacy among neurons in ventral visual cortical areas that are involved in face recognition. In contrast, perceptual acuity for low-level visual features tends to be more stable, and the small changes that can occur do so only after extensive training over long periods of time. At the cellular level, synaptic strength is sensitive to the precise relative timing of pre- and post-synaptic events. This phenomenon, known as spike timing dependent plasticity, has been linked to changes in the stimulus selectivity of V1 neurons measured physiologically, and to shifts in perceived line orientation in human subjects measured psychophysically (Yao and Dan 2001). In the current study, we tested the idea that visual responses in high-level visual cortex, and thus object recognition, can be modified by stimulus timing dependent plasticity. We hypothesized that the plasticity induced by stimulus timing manipulations would be greater in a perceptual task that depends on high-level visual cortex than for a task that can be solved based on early visual processing. To test this idea, we measured psychometric functions of subjects performing two perceptual tasks that required either a high-level (face identity) or a low-level (line orientation) judgement. We first determined the stimulus value that corresponded to the point of perceptual equivalence for both stimulus types. We then induced a shift in this perceptual midpoint using a conditioning protocol designed to induce spike timing dependent plasticity in the connections between neurons in visual cortex. In experiments measuring face identity perception, the subjects were exposed to a block of conditioning stimulation that consisted of 100 pairings of two brief (10 ms) presentations of faces A and B. In experiments measuring perceived line orientation, an identical pairing protocol was employed using gratings with slightly different orientations. In both cases, pairings presented with a brief (20 ms) stimulus onset asynchrony shifted the perceptual midpoint to the left or right depending on the order of the stimulus pairing (AB or BA). The magnitude of this perceptual shift decreased substantially or was abolished altogether when the stimulus onset asynchrony was increased beyond 60 ms. When expressed as a proportion of the slope of the psychometric function for each stimulus type, a significantly greater shift was induced for perception of face identity than for line orientation. This result supports the idea that high-level visual areas are particularly susceptible to stimulus timing dependent plasticity. Conference: Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2010, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, 25 Feb - 2 Mar, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster session II Citation: McMahon DB and Leopold DA (2010). Stimulus timing dependent plasticity in high- and low-level vision. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.03.00327 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 08 Mar 2010; Published Online: 08 Mar 2010. * Correspondence: David B McMahon, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, United States, mcmahond@mail.nih.gov Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers David B McMahon David A Leopold Google David B McMahon David A Leopold Google Scholar David B McMahon David A Leopold PubMed David B McMahon David A Leopold Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Fast trial pacing in a lexical decision task reveals a decay of automatic semantic activation

We report an experiment showing that reducing attentional resources by presenting trials with a short, 400 ms intertrial interval (ITI) (a) did not affect semantic priming at a 160 ms prime-to-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA), relative to a 2500 ms ITI, and (b) eliminated the priming that occurred at a 1200 ms SOA when the ITI was 2500 ms. However, the elimination of priming at the 1200 ms SOA occurred only when the relatedness proportion (RP, proportion of related primes and targets) was .25 and not when it was .75. We interpret these results as showing that attentional/strategic priming occurs with an RP as low as .25, but only when sufficient attentional resources are available. Equally important, this is the first direct evidence that automatic semantic activation decays within 1200 ms in the standard semantic-priming/lexical-decision paradigm when attentional resources are not being used to maintain the goal of sustaining prime activation. We further argue that the frequent occurrences of related primes and targets with a high RP serve as reminders to maintain that goal such that cognitive load does not reduce long-SOA priming when the RP is high.

Avoidance of Alcohol-Related Stimuli Increases During the Early Stage of Abstinence in Alcohol-Dependent Patients

The aim of this study was to analyse initial orienting processes as well as maintenance of attention towards alcohol cues in recently detoxified alcoholics and light social drinkers. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of pre-treatment alcohol consumption and abstinence duration onto alcohol-related attentional bias. We used an alcohol-visual-dot-probe-task with two different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) to examine processes of initial orienting and maintenance of attention separately (50 and 500 ms SOA). With short SOA, we found a positive attentional bias towards alcohol cues in alcohol-dependent patients and light social drinkers that was positively associated with pre-treatment alcohol consumption in alcoholics. Using a longer SOA, a negative attentional bias was found in light social drinkers and in patients abstinent for more than 2 weeks indicating alcohol stimuli avoidance. In patients, we found a negative correlation between attentional bias and duration of abstinence. After initial visual orienting towards alcohol-related stimuli, light social drinkers as well as longer abstinent alcohol-dependent patients disengage their attention. In patients, this disengagement increased during the first 3 weeks after detoxification indicating assimilation to the attentional bias pattern of light social drinkers.

Hemispheric contributions to semantic activation: A divided visual field and event-related potential investigation of time-course

Hemispheric contributions to lexical-semantic processing were investigated using event-related potentials and a divided visual field semantic priming paradigm. Hemispheric activation for pairs related via semantic category membership and association (CA) or via semantic category membership only (CO) was examined over two stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Experiment 1 employed a SOA of 250 ms, and Experiment 2 employed a SOA of 750 ms. Controlled semantic priming was targeted in both experiments via a high relatedness proportion. Behavioral accuracy data revealed significant bilateral priming for both CA and CO conditions at 250 ms SOA. At 750 ms SOA hemispheric differences were observed within the behavioral data, with significant priming of the CO condition and priming for the CA condition approaching significance in the left hemisphere, and significant priming of the CA condition only in the right hemisphere. At 250 ms SOA, ERP analysis revealed bilateral CA activation in the N400 and LPC time windows. The second experiment (750 ms SOA) revealed bilateral CA priming during the N400 time window, with no significant LPC effects. The CO condition did not elicit significant ERP priming within either time window at either SOA. The results indicate no hemispheric differences for the ERP measures, with bilateral hemispheric N400 priming observed for associated category members irrespective of SOA, and a bilateral LPC effect at 250 ms SOA only, under controlled semantic priming conditions.

Neural Correlates of Age-related Reduction in Visual Motion Priming

ABSTRACT Previously we reported that priming of visual motion perception is reduced in older adults compared to younger adults (Jiang, Greenwood, & Parasuraman, 1999, Psychology and Aging, 14(4), 619; Jiang, Luo, & Parasuraman, 2002b, Neuropsychology, 16(2), 140). To examine the neural mechanisms underlying this age-related effect, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during perceptual judgments of motion directions by younger and older adults in two experiments. When judging single-step motion, both younger and older adults evoked significantly larger ERP late positive component (LPC) responses to unambiguous motion compared to LPC responses elicited by ambiguous motion. In contrast, compared to the younger adults, the older adults evoked comparable but delayed ERP responses to single motion steps. In the second experiment the younger and older groups judged the directions of two successive motion-steps (either motion priming or motion reversals). Under short (200–400 ms) stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), the difference between the ERP responses to priming and reversal conditions was significantly larger for the younger than for the older adults. This study provides the first electrophysiological evidence that brain aging leads to delayed processing of single motion direction and visual motion priming as early as 100 ms in the early visual cortex. Age-related changes in strength and temporal characteristics of neural responses in temporal-parietal regions were particularly pronounced in older adults when successive motion signals are placed closely in time, within 400 ms.

Shifts in spatial attention affect the perceived duration of events

We investigated the relationship between attention and perceived duration of visual events with a double-task paradigm. The primary task was to discriminate the size change of a 2 degree circle presented 10 degrees left, right, above, or below fixation; the secondary task was to judge the temporal separation (from 133 ms to 633 ms) of two equiluminant horizontal bars (10 deg x 2 deg) briefly flashed 12 degrees above or below fixation. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between primary and secondary task ranged from -1300 ms to +1000 ms. Temporal intervals in proximity of the onset of the primary task stimuli were perceived strongly compressed by up to 40%. The effect was proportional to the size of the interval with a maximum effect at 100 ms SOA. Control experiments show that neither primary-task difficulty, nor the type of primary task discrimination (form or motion, or equiluminant or luminance contrast) nor spatial congruence between primary and secondary task alter the effect. Interestingly, the compression occurred only when the intervals are marked by bars presented in separated spatial locations: when the interval is marked by two bars flashed in the same spatial position no temporal distortion was found. These data indicate that attention can alter perceived duration when the brain has to compare the passage of time at two different spatial positions, corroborating earlier findings that mechanisms of time perception may monitor separately the various spatial locations possibly at high level of analysis.

Crossmodal Links in Attention in the Driving Environment: The Roles of Cueing Modality, Signal Timing, and Workload

Multimodal information presentation has been proposed as a means to support timesharing in complex data-rich environments. To ensure the effectiveness of this approach, it is necessary to consider performance effects of recently discovered crossmodal spatial and temporal links in attention, as well as their interaction with other performance-shaping factors. The main goals of this research were to confirm that performance effects of crossmodal links in spatial attention scale to complex environments and to examine how these effects vary as a function of cue modality, signal timing, and workload. In the present study, set in a driving simulation, spatially valid and invalid auditory and tactile cues preceded the presentation of visual targets at various stimulus-onset asynchronies and under different levels of workload induced by simulated wind gusts of varied intensity. The findings from this experiment confirm that visual target identification accuracies and response times are, overall, more accurate and faster when validly-cued. Significant interactions were found between cue validity, stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), and cue modality, such that valid tactile cueing is most beneficial at shorter (100–200 ms) SOAs, while valid auditory cueing resulted in faster responses than invalid cueing at 500 ms SOAs, but slower responses at 1000 ms SOAs. Tactile error rates were significantly higher than auditory error rates at various interactions of modality and SOA. These findings were robust across all workload conditions. They highlight the need for context-sensitive information presentation and can inform the design of multimodal interfaces for a wide range of application domains.