The investigation of detecting AV Synchrony across different regions of the visual Field Hosnia Bakhshi University of Western Sydney

Abstract Does the ability to detect AV Synchrony vary across different fields of the vision and under what conditions does the brain attempt to combine visual and auditory information. These are the questions, which were taken into consideration when attempting this experiment. A previously held view was that audiovisual integration needs temporally coincident signals. Recent studies have however discovered no link whatsoever for audiovisual integration in visual search, despite using synchronized audiovisual events. Therefore another question arises, what critical information is needed for audiovisual integration.

Introduction The brain combines auditory and visual information so that the body can act appropriately within the environment. The brain uses these two sensory inputs into usable practical outputs. But the real question is under what conditions does the brain combine auditory and visual information?. It is debatable that information from different sensory organs are processed in different parts of the brain. Functional integration is the communication that occurs between different parts of the brain. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how AV Synchrony occurs within different parts of the visual field. One of the main purposes of sensory integration is to evaluate how the brain processes sensory inputs from multiple sensory modalities, in this case vision and audition, which are very significant modalities.

Previous research Efficient visual search from Synchronized auditory signals requires transient audiovisual events, (Vanderberg, Cass, Olivers, Theeuwes & Alais) treads on the same ground as our research topic. The detection of AV Synchrony in Visual and auditory Modalities. It was previously believed that for audiovisual integration to be possible, coincident signals are needed. However, a recent finding failed to find any proof for audiovisual integration in Visual search, despite using synchronized audiovisual fields. The same question was drawn out here as well what conditions are necessary for audiovisual integration.

The principal findings of the paper revealed that temporal coincidence Synchrony of audiovisual components could draw out audiovisual integration in cluttered displays and produce mega fast target identification. In the visual component experiments, it was revealed that participants found the visual target exceptionally faster when it was paired with a synchronous auditory signal. Bu comparing different temporal modulations i.e. Sine wave vs Square wave; it was shown that abrupt visual events was needed for this efficiency to continue and sinusoidal audiovisual modulation do not support efficient search.

Method Participants The participants were 23 female psychology students from the university of western Sydney. Who received course credit in return for their participation. All participants had normal or correct to normal vision. Stimulus A fixation point was presented in the middle of the screen. On each trial 19 luminance modulating disks would appear, located equidistantly from fixation on an imaginary circle with a radius of 15 degrees of visual angle. The diameter of each disk subtended a visual angle of 0.5 degrees The luminance of each disk varied in time from a minimum of 0.1 to a maximum of 165 cd/m2. The modulation of each disk was periodic, with each modulation cycle equaling 1 second. Two modulation cycles were presented on each trial. Although each disk modulated in luminance at the same rate (1 cycle/second = 1Hz), each disk modulated at a different phase (i.e. each disk reached maximum and minimum luminance at a slightly different time). The phase difference between temporally adjacent disks was equivalent to 50ms. On each trial, therefore, the maximum luminance of individual disks occurred at 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850 & 900 ms into the trial. On each trial each temporal phase was allocated randomly to each of the 19 possible spatial locations. The temporal luminance modulation profile of all elements on a given trial was either sinusoidal or square-wave. This was determined randomly from trial-totrial. On each trial a 500Hz tone was presented, the intensity of which matched the modulation rate of the visual elements. The phase of the tone was uniquely synchronized with a single visual element. The particular temporal phase of the synchronized audio-visual event varied randomly from trial-to-trial. The synchronized visual element was presented 20 times at each location under both square-wave and sinusoidal modulation conditions (a total of 760 trials per subject). Apparatus Dark room Mitsubishi Diamond Pro computer monitor (1024 x 768 pixel resolution running at 100 Hz refresh rate) PC running E-Prime software Standard computer keyboard Tone presented through Sennheiser headphones. Subjects were seated 80 cm from the computer monitor.

Procedure Subjects instructed to maintain their fixation on a centrally presented fixation point. nineteen disks luminance modulations was synchronized with the tone. This was achieved by typing the number corresponding to that particular disk into a dialogue box using a standard computer keyboard. Results To examine under what conditions does the brain combine auditory and visual information, the interaction between, sinusoidal waves and square waves was observed. It was discovered that synchronizing sine wave tones with sine wave luminance flicker has no effect on search efficiency. Synchronizing square wave tones with square wave luminance flicker improves search efficiency. In the lab report experiment participants reported which disk modulated in synchrony with the tone. The graph results revealed that the square waves were much higher compared to sine waves. The interaction between waveform and location for the overall graph was F(3,22=27.5)= 817.0 P<. 0001 and the main effects for the waveform was F (1,22)= 42.1, P <. 0001. It can be clearly seen that the frequency between waveform and location is very obvious. Square waves reported a frequency F (3,22)= 43.83, P< .001 and Sine waves F(3,22)=1.35, P>.05. Discussion The results seem to neither agree nor disagree with the hypothesis of whether our ability to detect AV Synchrony varies across different regions of the visual field. The participants reported which disk modulated in synchrony with the tone. The results revealed that square waves were significantly higher than sine waves.

References Cavanagh, H.S.P & Intriligator, J. (1996). Attention resolution and the locus of visual awareness. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Massachusetts. Corbette, J.E & Carrasco, M. (2011). Visual performance fields: Frames of reference. Department of psychology and center for neural science, New York. Vanderberg, E., Cass, J., Olivers, C.N.L., Theeuwes, J. & Alais, D. (2010). Efficient visual search from synchronized auditory signal requires transient audiovisual events. E Journal of Plosone.org, 1-4.