Volume 9, Number 4, Article 25, Pages 1-7 doi:10.1167/9.4.25 http://journalofvision.org/9/4/25/ ISSN 1534-7362
Meaningful auditory information enhances perception of visual biological motion
Roberto Arrighi
Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata (INOA), Firenze, Italy, & Facoltà di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
[e-mail]
Francesco Marini
Facoltà di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
[e-mail]
David Burr
Facoltà di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy, & Istituto di Neuroscienze del CNR, Pisa, Italy
[e-mail]
Abstract

Robust perception requires efficient integration of information from our various senses. Much recent electrophysiology points to neural areas responsive to multisensory stimulation, particularly audiovisual stimulation. However, psychophysical evidence for functional integration of audiovisual motion has been ambiguous. In this study we measure perception of an audiovisual form of biological motion, tap dancing. The results show that the audio tap information interacts with visual motion information, but only when in synchrony, demonstrating a functional combination of audiovisual information in a natural task. The advantage of multimodal combination was better than the optimal maximum likelihood prediction.

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History
Received November 13, 2008; published April 30, 2009
Citation
Arrighi, R., Marini, F., & Burr, D. (2009). Meaningful auditory information enhances perception of visual biological motion. Journal of Vision, 9(4):25, 1-7, http://journalofvision.org/9/4/25/, doi:10.1167/9.4.25.
Keywords
biological motion, audiovisual integration, cross-modal perception
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