Open AccessVoluntary movement affects simultaneous perception of auditory and tactile stimuli presented to a non-moving body part
Author(s) -
Qiao Hao,
Hiroki Ora,
Kazuhiko Ogawa,
Taiki Ogata,
Yoichi Miyake
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep33336
Subject(s) - perception , stimulus (psychology) , tactile perception , psychology , sensory system , auditory perception , movement (music) , index finger , tactile stimuli , audiology , communication , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , acoustics , medicine , physics , anatomy
The simultaneous perception of multimodal sensory information has a crucial role for effective reactions to the external environment. Voluntary movements are known to occasionally affect simultaneous perception of auditory and tactile stimuli presented to the moving body part. However, little is known about spatial limits on the effect of voluntary movements on simultaneous perception, especially when tactile stimuli are presented to a non-moving body part. We examined the effect of voluntary movement on the simultaneous perception of auditory and tactile stimuli presented to the non-moving body part. We considered the possible mechanism using a temporal order judgement task under three experimental conditions: voluntary movement, where participants voluntarily moved their right index finger and judged the temporal order of auditory and tactile stimuli presented to their non-moving left index finger; passive movement; and no movement. During voluntary movement, the auditory stimulus needed to be presented before the tactile stimulus so that they were perceived as occurring simultaneously. This subjective simultaneity differed significantly from the passive movement and no movement conditions. This finding indicates that the effect of voluntary movement on simultaneous perception of auditory and tactile stimuli extends to the non-moving body part.