The change of auditory motion detection depending on the direction of visually induced self-motion

Wataru Teramoto, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Abstract
We investigated the influence of large-field visual motion on the detection performance of auditory motion. Several studies have demonstrated that local visual motion (i.e. object-motion) captures the perceived direction of auditory motion. However, little is known about the influence of global visual motion such that self-motion perception is induced on auditory motion perception. In the present study we used Gaussian white-noise filtered with head-related transfer functions as auditory stimuli. They were virtually presented in observers’ back space, moving leftward or rightward from just behind their heads at various constant speeds, while large-field visual motion was continuously presented and compelled observers to perceive self-motion (either yaw-axis or pitch-axis circular vection). Observers were requested to judge the moving direction of the auditory stimuli as quickly and accurately as possible. As a result, auditory stimuli moving leftward were detected more quickly and accurately than those moving rightward when rightward visual motion was presented while inducing leftward self-motion, and vice versa. There was no difference between upward and downward visual motion conditions. The implications of these results are discussed in light of the contribution of self-motion mechanism to auditory spatiotemporal processing.

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