Work

Could an auditory equivalent to a continuously varying visual stimulus improve beat synchronization? Evidence supporting vision as a trustworthy modality in sensorimotor timing

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Although synchronization to a perceived regular beat in time has been established to be much less variable for discrete auditory stimuli, such as tones, than for discrete visual stimuli, such as flashes, recent advances in beat synchronization research have demonstrated that visual beat synchronization can be substantially improved and become comparable to auditory tones when employing continuously moving visual stimuli. It therefore has been suggested that the difference in modality is an important but not necessarily dominant factor for beat synchronization. However, doubts exist in favoring auditory dominance, as comparing continuously varying visual stimuli with discrete auditory stimuli is considered unfair. Here, based on a periodically contracting ring for which the spatial displacement continuously varied with a constant acceleration, we devised an equivalent in the auditory domain: an amplitude-modulated sound whose amplitude continuously varied with an acceleration of the same magnitude. The results showed that beat synchronization performance of the amplitude-modulated sound was not greater than that of the tone or the contracting ring. The present finding supports that vision is a trustworthy modality for sensorimotor timing processing.

Source: Vision Research

DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2025.108616

Authors: Yingyu Huang, Chaolun Wang, Xiang Wu

Institution: Sun Yat-sen University

Language: English

Topic: Multisensory perception and integration

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,940

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China