Auditory object-motion perception during actual self-motion
Poster Presentation

Wataru Teramoto
Department of Cognitive and Computational Psychophysics, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

Yuki Hongoh
Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kobe Universtiy

Shinichi Kita
Faculty of Letters, Kobe University

     Abstract ID Number: 60
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 5, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/07/2007 10:00 AM in Quad Maclauren Hall
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
We investigated the effect of actual self-motion on auditory object-motion detection. There have been several studies that investigate how eye, head, and whole body movements modulate visual motion processing. However, less is known about their effects on auditory motion processing. Our previous study showed that sounds moving in the congruent directions with visually induced self-motion were detected more quickly and more accurately than those in the conflicting directions, when sounds were presented in rear space (Teramoto et al., 2006 IMRF). In the present study, we used a rotary chair surrounded with random dots and two loudspeakers attached on either the front or the back of the chair, in order to confirm the phenomenon in a more realistic environment. Observers were asked to judge in which direction a sound appeared to move, leftward or rightward, while being rotated around their vertical axis. The results for the rear space condition were consistent with our previous study. On the other hand, those for the front space condition showed that sounds moving in the conflicting directions with self-motion were detected more accurately. The implications of these results are discussed in light of the contribution of the self-motion mechanisms to auditory spatiotemporal processing.