Auditory modulation of extra-retinal velocity signals A Makin, M Bertamini, R Lawson, J Pickering |
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Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
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| Makin et al. (2012, Acta Psychologica 129, 534-521) found that repetitive auditory click trains increased the perceived velocity of subsequent moving gratings. The current work tested whether auditory clicks selectively alter retinal or extra-retinal velocity signals. On every trial, participants listened to either a 4Hz auditory click train or a silent interval, then viewed a moving dot-target that traveled at a speed between 7.5 and 17.5 deg/s. Pursuit and fixation trials were compared, and compliance with oculomotor instructions was monitored with an eye tracker. Velocity estimates were entered with the keyboard after each trial. In our first experiment, the dot targets moved horizontally, we found that prior auditory clicks only increased subjective velocity on the pursuit trials. In our second experiment we replicated the results with vertical motion. In a third experiment, the click effect disappeared when an orthogonally orientated sine-wave grating was presented behind the pursuit target. This could be because participants based their estimates on the reliable retinal velocity signals that were caused by opponent motion of the static background. These findings provide convergent evidence that auditory clicks selectively alter extra-retinal velocity signals, and clarify the nature of the links between visual and auditory networks. |
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