Temporal ventriloquism in sensorimotor synchronization

Abstract

Perception of time is multisensory and therefore requires integration of the auditory and visual systems. Temporal ventriloquism is a phenomenon in which discrepant temporal aspects of multisensory stimuli are resolved through auditory dominance. Numerous prior experiments have demonstrated temporal ventriloquism using simple flash and click stimuli. The experiment presented herein employed a sensorimotor synchronization task to examine the effect of visual stimulus type across a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA). This study compared sensorimotor response to three visual stimuli: a flash, a baton swinging, and a mallet striking a block. The results of the experiment indicated that the influence of SOA was greatly dependent on stimulus type. In contrast with the transient flash stimulus, the oscillatory visual stimuli provided more spatiotemporal information. This could explain the significantly reduced effect of temporal ventriloquism observed in response to the baton and mallet relative to the flash. Multisensory integration did not absolutely bias the auditory system; predictive visual dynamics proved useful in the unified perception of temporal occurrence.