Exogenous Bimodal Cues Attenuate Age-Related Audiovisual Integration

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous attention decreases audiovisual integration (AVI); however, whether the AVI is different when exogenous attention is elicited by bimodal and unimodal cues and its aging effect remain unclear. To clarify this matter, 20 older adults and 20 younger adults were recruited to conduct an auditory/visual discrimination task following bimodal audiovisual cues or unimodal auditory/visual cues. The results showed that the response to all stimulus types was faster in younger adults compared with older adults, and the response was faster when responding to audiovisual stimuli compared with auditory or visual stimuli. Analysis using the race model revealed that the AVI was lower in the exogenous-cue conditions compared with the no-cue condition for both older and younger adults. The AVI was observed in all exogenous-cue conditions for the younger adults (visual cue > auditory cue > audiovisual cue); however, for older adults, the AVI was only found in the visual-cue condition. In addition, the AVI was lower in older adults compared to younger adults under no- and visual-cue conditions. These results suggested that exogenous attention decreased the AVI, and the AVI was lower in exogenous attention elicited by bimodal-cue than by unimodal-cue conditions. In addition, the AVI was reduced for older adults compared with younger adults under exogenous attention.

Sustained visual attentional load modulates audiovisual integration in older and younger adults

“…investigated how auditory attentional load affects AVI and found that the AVI of older adults was lower than that of younger adults under all attentional load conditions. Studies have found that visual and auditory attentional resources during stimulus attribute discrimination are distinct (Wahn & König, 2017) and that auditory distractors attract attention more easily than visual distractors (Ren, Zhang, et al, 2021). In the study by , an auditory attentional load was applied, but in the current study, a visual attentional load was applied; visual dominance during AVI has been extensively reported (Diaconescu et al, 2013).…”

The Role of Attention in Immersion: The Two–Competitor Model

“…Although we have already mentioned the importance of internally directed attention in maintaining a sense of immersion, when discussing sensory dynamics it is simpler to start with the traditional taxonomy of exogenous and endogenous of attention in sensory processing, see Müller and Rabbitt [41], Spence and Driver [42], Berger et al [43], Sani et al [44], Jigo et al [45], Ren et al [46]. Exogenous or bottom-up attention to the respective sensory modality is driven by the physical properties and saliency of the stimuli.…”

“…There is a long-standing debate in the literature over how the exogenous and endogenous mechanisms of attentional allocation interact, especially across modalities, e.g., see Müller and Rabbitt [41], Spence and Driver [42], Berger et al [43], Sani et al [44], Jigo et al [45], Ren et al [46]. Some models suggest that there should be a stronger interaction (i.e.…”

Dynamic brain causal connectivity of audiovisual integration under endogenous attention regulation

“…Endogenous attention is driven by goals, while exogenous attention is driven by stimuli [1]. It has been proved that endogenous attention enhances audiovisual integration [10] and exogenous attention weakens the audiovisual integration effect [11].…”