The duration of a co-occurring sound modulates visual detection performance in humans.
<h4>Background</h4>The duration of sounds can affect the perceived duration of co-occurring visual stimuli. However, it is unclear whether this is limited to amodal processes of duration perception or affects other non-temporal qualities of visual perception.<h4>Methodology/princip...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Language: | EN |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doaj.org/article/f2e59f2c862d4a1fac748c838a7b08f0 |
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| Summary: | <h4>Background</h4>The duration of sounds can affect the perceived duration of co-occurring visual stimuli. However, it is unclear whether this is limited to amodal processes of duration perception or affects other non-temporal qualities of visual perception.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>Here, we tested the hypothesis that visual sensitivity--rather than only the perceived duration of visual stimuli--can be affected by the duration of co-occurring sounds. We found that visual detection sensitivity (d') for unimodal stimuli was higher for stimuli of longer duration. Crucially, in a cross-modal condition, we replicated previous unimodal findings, observing that visual sensitivity was shaped by the duration of co-occurring sounds. When short visual stimuli (∼24 ms) were accompanied by sounds of matching duration, visual sensitivity was decreased relative to the unimodal visual condition. However, when the same visual stimuli were accompanied by longer auditory stimuli (∼60-96 ms), visual sensitivity was increased relative to the performance for ∼24 ms auditory stimuli. Across participants, this sensitivity enhancement was observed within a critical time window of ∼60-96 ms. Moreover, the amplitude of this effect correlated with visual sensitivity enhancement found for longer lasting visual stimuli across participants.<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Our findings show that the duration of co-occurring sounds affects visual perception; it changes visual sensitivity in a similar way as altering the (actual) duration of the visual stimuli does. |
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