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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique
Published on: September 7, 2022
Brighter noise: sensory enhancement of perceived loudness by concurrent visual stimulation
Eric C Odgaard1, Yoav Arieh, Lawrence E Marks
1John B. Pierce Laboratory, New Haven, Connecticut and Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA. eodgaard@jbpierce.org
Abstract:
Two experiments investigated the effect of concurrently presented light on the perceived loudness of a low-level burst of white noise. The results suggest two points. First, white noise presented with light tends to be rated as louder than noise presented alone. Second, the enhancement in loudness judgments is resistant to two experimental manipulations: varying the probability that light accompanies sound and shifting from a rating method to a forced choice comparison. Both manipulations were previously shown to eliminate a complementary noise-induced enhancement in ratings of brightness. Whereas noise-induced enhancement of brightness seems to reflect a late-stage decisional process, such as a response bias, the present results suggest that light-induced enhancement of loudness may reflect an early-stage sensory interaction.
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