To maintain perceptual coherence, the brain corrects for discrepancies between the senses. If, for example, lights are consistently offset from sounds, representations of auditory space are remapped to reduce this error (spatial recalibration). While recalibration effects have been observed following both brief and prolonged periods of adaptation, the relative contribution of discrepancies occurring over these timescales is unknown. Here we show that distinct multisensory recalibration mechanisms operate in remote and recent history. To characterise the dynamics of this spatial recalibration, we adapted human participants to audio-visual discrepancies for different durations, from 32 to 256 seconds, and measured the aftereffects on perceived auditory location. Recalibration effects saturated rapidly but decayed slowly, suggesting a combination of transient and sustained adaptation mechanisms. When long-term adaptation to an audio-visual discrepancy was immediately followed by a brief period of de-adaptation to an opposing discrepancy, recalibration was initially cancelled but subsequently reappeared with further testing. These dynamics were best fit by a multiple-exponential model that monitored audio-visual discrepancies over distinct timescales. Recent and remote recalibration mechanisms enable the brain to balance rapid adaptive changes to transient discrepancies that should be quickly forgotten against slower adaptive changes to persistent discrepancies likely to be more permanent.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44984-9 | DOI Listing |
JASA Express Lett
April 2024
Department of Clinical Sciences, Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology, Lund University, 22100 Lund, Sweden.
This study investigates speech production under various room acoustic conditions in virtual environments, by comparing vocal behavior and the subjective experience of speaking in four real rooms and their audio-visual virtual replicas. Sex differences were explored. Males and females (N = 13) adjusted their voice levels similarly to room acoustic changes in the real rooms, but only males did so in the virtual rooms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Psychol
August 2023
Department of Architecture and Building Engineering, Faculty of Architecture and Building Engineering, Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
Introduction: This study aims to investigate the interplay between roadside trees and pedestrians' assessment of traffic noise and comfort. The study examines the potential effects of visual and design elements of roadside trees on the overall soundscape comfort.
Methods: The study design involves a systematic exploration of different conditions, encompassing traffic volume, distance from sound source, and tree density.
PLoS One
August 2023
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.
Multisensory integration and recalibration are two processes by which perception deals with discrepant signals. Both are often studied in the spatial ventriloquism paradigm. There, integration is probed by the presentation of discrepant audio-visual stimuli, while recalibration manifests as an aftereffect in subsequent judgements of unisensory sounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
November 2022
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.
Music involves different senses and is emotional in nature, and musicians show enhanced detection of audio-visual temporal discrepancies and emotion recognition compared to non-musicians. However, whether musical training produces these enhanced abilities or if they are innate within musicians remains unclear. Thirty-one adult participants were randomly assigned to a music training, music listening, or control group who all completed a one-hour session per week for 11 weeks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFiScience
June 2022
Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
To clarify the role of sensory experience during early development for adult multisensory learning capabilities, we probed audiovisual spatial processing in human individuals who had been born blind because of dense congenital cataracts (CCs) and who subsequently had received cataract removal surgery, some not before adolescence or adulthood. Their ability to integrate audio-visual input and to recalibrate multisensory spatial representations was compared to normally sighted control participants and individuals with a history of developmental (later onset) cataracts. Results in CC individuals revealed both normal multisensory integration in audiovisual trials (ventriloquism effect) and normal recalibration of unimodal auditory localization following audiovisual discrepant exposure (ventriloquism aftereffect) as observed in the control groups.
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