Abstract
Here, we examined sensitivity of visual, auditory, and audiovisual temporal order in five age-groups (20 to 70 years old). We also measured multisensory integration (MSI) using a phenomenon known as “temporal ventriloquism,” in which click sounds improve sensitivity of visual temporal order. Results showed that sensitivity of visual, auditory, and audiovisual temporal order declined from 50 years on. However, there was no corresponding decline in MSI as the click sounds actually compensated the loss of sensitivity of visual temporal order in the elderly. Sensitivity of audiovisual temporal order did not correlate with MSI, suggesting that well-preserved explicit judgments about cross-modal temporal order are not required for MSI to occur.
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Notes
For each group, JNDs were fitted by the linear function. The mean and standard deviations of R 2 for the 20-year-olds were .84 (±.06), .78 (±.12), .81 (±.12), .88 (±.08), and .88 (±.06) for the visual (three conditions: visual-only, 0, 100 ms), auditory, and audiovisual TOJ task; .88 (±.07), .82 (±.09), .86 (±.04), .87 (±.10), and .91 (±.05) for the 30-year-olds; .84 (±.09), .82 (±.08), .86 (±.07), .88 (±.08), and .87 (±.06) for the 40-year-olds; .88 (±.09), .90 (±.06), .87 (±.07), .90 (±.06), and .79 (±.14) for the 50-year-olds; and .86 (±.11), .84 (±.11), .89 (±.04), .88 (±.06), and .86 (±.08) for the 60-year-olds.
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de Boer-Schellekens, L., Vroomen, J. Multisensory integration compensates loss of sensitivity of visual temporal order in the elderly. Exp Brain Res 232, 253–262 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3736-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3736-5