Motor congruency and multisensory integration jointly facilitate visual information processing before movement execution

Abstract

Attention allows us to select important sensory information and enhances sensory information processing. Attention and our motor system are tightly coupled: attention is shifted to the target location before a goal-directed eye-or hand movement is executed. Congruent eye-hand movements to the same target can boost the effect of this pre-movement shift of attention. Moreover, visual information processing can be enhanced by, for example, auditory input presented in spatial and temporal proximity of visual input via multisensory integration (MSI). In this study, we investigated whether the combination of MSI and motor congruency can synergistically enhance visual information processing beyond what can be observed using motor congruency alone. Participants performed congruent eye-and hand movements during a 2-AFC visual discrimination task. The discrimination target was presented in the planning phase of the movements at the movement target location or a movement irrelevant location. Three conditions were compared: (1) a visual target without sound, (2) a visual target with sound spatially and temporally aligned (MSI) and (3) a visual target with sound temporally misaligned (no MSI). Performance was enhanced at the movement-relevant location when congruent motor actions and MSI coincide compared to the other conditions. Congruence in the motor system and MSI together therefore lead to enhanced sensory information processing beyond the effects of motor congruency alone, before a movement is executed. Such a synergy implies that the boost of attention previously observed for the independent factors is not at ceiling level, but can be increased even further when the right conditions are met.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Two hands are better than one: Perceptual benefits by bimanual movements

“…Motor executions were valid (i.e., all end points were closer to the target than a distractor location, and movements had amplitudes of more than two visual degrees and onsets after probe offsets) in 58.3% ( SD = 15.4%) of all trials on average. This percentage is comparable to previous studies ( Khan et al, 2011 ; Elshout, Van der Stoep, Nijboer, & Van der Stigchel, 2020 ) and not surprising given the difficulty of the task. Nonetheless, we kept invalid trials for analyses for the sake of statistical power and because an inaccurate motor execution does not necessarily mean that the shift of attention was inaccurate.…”

MultiTab: A Novel Portable Device to Evaluate Multisensory Skills*

“…The two principles that have been suggested as a driven for multisensory integration are spatial [3], [4], and temporal congruency [5], [6]. For example, when a light and a sound are originated in a temporal and spatial binding window (i.e., close in time and location), it is likely that both stimuli will be integrated into a unified percept [7]. Multisensory cues can be particularly used to infer spatiotemporal features of an external event.…”

“…However, motor action is not simply a measure of perception, as both processes are tightly coupled being both influenced by each other. It has been suggested that multisensory integration and motor system lead to enhanced sensory processing [7]. In this line, Valzolgher and collaborators (2020) suggested that, when updating auditory spatial localization, kinesthetic cues have an added value to just paying attention to seeing and/or hearing sounds' positions [13].…”