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The addition of a spatial auditory cue improves spatial updating in a virtual reality navigation task

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Abstract

Auditory cues are integrated with vision and body-based self-motion cues for motion perception, balance, and gait, though limited research has evaluated their effectiveness for navigation. Here, we tested whether an auditory cue co-localized with a visual target could improve spatial updating in a virtual reality homing task. Participants navigated a triangular homing task with and without an easily localizable spatial audio signal co-located with the home location. The main outcome was unsigned angular error, defined as the absolute value of the difference between the participant’s turning response and the correct response towards the home location. Angular error was significantly reduced in the presence of spatial sound compared to a head-fixed identical auditory signal. Participants’ angular error was 22.79° in the presence of spatial audio and 30.09° in its absence. Those with the worst performance in the absence of spatial sound demonstrated the greatest improvement with the added sound cue. These results suggest that auditory cues may benefit navigation, particularly for those who demonstrated the highest level of spatial updating error in the absence of spatial sound.

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Notes

  1. This paper was the most relevant example of a single localizable cue influencing turning during gait when the study was designed.

  2. ICC was calculated using a null/intercept only model.

  3. Significance values were determined using a likelihood ratio test, all models successfully converged

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E., Room 502, UT 84112, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Corey S. Shayman, Mirinda M. Whitaker, Jeanine K. Stefanucci & Sarah H. Creem-Regehr

  2. Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience, University of Utah, UT 84112, Salt Lake City, USA

    Corey S. Shayman

  3. Monterey Technologies, Inc., 1790 Sun Peak Dr suite a-203, UT 84098, Park City, UT, USA

    Erica Barhorst-Cates

  4. National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR), Portland VA Medical Center, 3710 SW US Veterans Hospital Road, P5-NCRAR, 97239, Portland, OR, USA

    Timothy E. Hullar

Authors
  1. Corey S. Shayman
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  2. Mirinda M. Whitaker
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  3. Erica Barhorst-Cates
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  4. Timothy E. Hullar
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  5. Jeanine K. Stefanucci
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  6. Sarah H. Creem-Regehr
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Correspondence to Corey S. Shayman.

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This research was supported by the National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders under Award Number 1F30DC021360-01 (Shayman), and by the American Otological Society in the form of a Fellowship Grant (Shayman). The authors would like to thank Jessica Stoker for her help with data collection and Munzer Abusham for his help with virtual environment development. The data and analysis script for this study are available on Open Science Framework.

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Shayman, C.S., Whitaker, M.M., Barhorst-Cates, E. et al. The addition of a spatial auditory cue improves spatial updating in a virtual reality navigation task. Atten Percept Psychophys (2024). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-024-02890-x

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