Multi-sensory feedback improves spatially compatible sensori-motor responses

To interact with machines, from computers to cars, we need to monitor multiple sensory stimuli, and respond to them with specific motor actions. It has been shown that our ability to react to a sensory stimulus is dependent on both the stimulus modality, as well as the spatial compatibility of the stimulus and the required response. However, the compatibility effects have been examined for sensory modalities individually, and rarely for scenarios requiring individuals to choose from multiple actions. Here, we compared response time of participants when they had to choose one of several spatially distinct, but compatible, responses to visual, tactile or simultaneous visual and tactile stimuli. We observed that the presence of both tactile and visual stimuli consistently improved the response time relative to when either stimulus was presented alone. While we did not observe a difference in response times of visual and tactile stimuli, the spatial stimulus localization was observed to be faster for visual stimuli compared to tactile stimuli.