Multisensory contributions to the perception of motion

The ability to process motion is crucial for coherent perception and action. While the majority of studies have focused on the unimodal factors that influence motion perception (see, for example, the other chapters in this Special Issue), some researchers have also investigated the extent to which information presented in one sensory modality can affect the perception of motion for stimuli presented in another modality. Although early studies often gave rise to mixed results, the development of increasingly sophisticated psychophysical paradigms are now enabling researchers to determine the spatiotemporal constraints on multisensory interactions in the perception of motion. Recent findings indicate that these interactions stand over-and-above the multisensory interactions documented previously for static stimuli, such as the oft-cited 'ventriloquism' effect. Neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies are also beginning to elucidate the network of neural structures responsible for the processing of motion information in the different sensory modalities, an important first step that will ultimately lead to the determination of the neural substrates underlying these multisensory contributions to motion perception.