Vertical shifts of visuospatial attention, not (eye) movements, affect auditory pitch discrimination

Preparing an ocular saccade is known to affect not only the perception of various visual features, such as orientation, contrast, and numerosity, but also sound localization. In the present study, we tested whether saccade preparation influences the perception of other auditory features, such as the pitch of a tone played before eye movement. We also examined whether pitch could influence saccade characteristics, as an instance of response compatibility effects. At the beginning of each trial, a visual cue indicated that a disk would appear above or below fixation. Participants were then presented with a tone of varying frequency and were instructed either to make a saccade toward the peripheral disk after the tone ended or to maintain fixation on the center of the screen. Pitch was consistently overestimated when the disk appeared in the upper visual field compared with the lower visual field. However, we found no evidence that saccade preparation affected pitch perception and no evidence of response compatibility effects. These findings suggest that vertical shifts of visuospatial attention are sufficient to impact pitch discrimination, likely through the activation of the spatial representation inherent to pitch.