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Perception of temporal synchrony not a prerequisite for multisensory integration
Robert M Jertberg1, Sander Begeer1, Hilde M Geurts2
1Department of Clinical and Developmental Psychology, The Netherlands and Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Scientific Reports
|February 29, 2024
Summary
Perception of synchrony is not essential for multisensory integration. Phonetic incongruence can create illusions and disrupt temporal judgments, suggesting a flexible integration process.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Auditory and Visual Processing
Background:
- Temporal alignment is crucial for integrating multisensory information.
- The role of perceived synchrony in multisensory integration remains debated.
- The impact of higher-level feature incongruence on temporal processing is under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between temporal processing and multisensory integration.
- To examine how phonetic incongruence influences the perception of synchrony and multisensory integration.
- To test the necessity of perceived synchrony for multisensory integration.
Main Methods:
- Presented 101 participants with stimuli eliciting the McGurk/MacDonald illusion (phoneme-viseme mismatches).
- Varied stimulus onset asynchrony between visual and auditory streams.
- Collected judgments on perceived syllable and perceived synchrony.
Main Results:
- Participants frequently experienced the illusion even without perceiving synchrony.
- Phonetic incongruence causing the illusion also interfered with simultaneity judgments.
- Multisensory integration occurred despite a lack of perceived synchrony.
Conclusions:
- Perceived synchrony is not a prerequisite for multisensory integration.
- Multisensory integration can be flexible and occur even with temporal discrepancies.
- A complex, reciprocal relationship exists between temporal and multisensory processing.
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