Mechanisms underlying temporal recalibration between different senses
Poster Presentation

Jordi Navarra
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

Salvador Soto-Faraco
ICREA, Parc Científic, Universitat de Barcelona

Charles Spence
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

     Abstract ID Number: 109
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 28, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/05/2007 10:00 AM in Quad Maclauren Hall
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Previous research has revealed the existence of perceptual mechanisms that compensate for slight temporal asynchronies between auditory and visual signals. We investigated whether temporal recalibration would also occur between auditory and tactile stimuli. Participants were exposed to streams of brief auditory and tactile stimuli presented in synchrony, or else with the auditory stimulus leading by 75 ms. After the exposure phase, the participants made temporal order judgments regarding pairs of auditory and tactile events occurring at varying stimulus onset asynchronies. The results showed that the minimal interval necessary to correctly resolve audiotactile temporal order was larger after exposure to the desynchronized streams than after exposure to the synchronous streams. This suggests the existence of a mechanism to compensate for audiotactile asynchronies that results in a widening of the temporal window for multisensory integration. The possible differences between the mechanisms underlying audiovisual and audiotactile temporal recalibration are discussed.