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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique
Published on: September 7, 2022
Hands help hearing: facilitatory audiotactile interaction at low sound-intensity levels
Martin Schürmann1, Gina Caetano, Veikko Jousmäki
1Brain Research Unit, Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, FIN-02015 HUT Espoo, Finland. martins@neuro.hut.fi
Abstract:
Auditory and vibrotactile stimuli share similar temporal patterns. A psychophysical experiment was performed to test whether this similarity would lead into an intermodal bias in perception of sound intensity. Nine normal-hearing subjects performed a loudness-matching task of faint tones, adjusting the probe tone to sound equally loud as a reference tone. The task was performed both when the subjects were touching and when they were not touching a tube that vibrated simultaneously with the probe tone. The subjects chose on average 12% lower intensities (p < 0.01) for the probe tone when they touched the tube, suggesting facilitatory interaction between auditory and tactile senses in normal-hearing subjects.
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