Cognitive control can modulate intersensory facilitation: speeding up visual antisaccades with an auditory distractor

Although saccadic reaction times to a visual stimulus are facilitated if an auditory accompanying stimulus is presented at the same location, this intersensory facilitation effect (IFE) has not been explored for antisaccades (saccades directed opposite to a visual target). In this study participants...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental brain research 2005-10, Vol.166 (3-4), p.440-444
Main Authors: Kirchner, Holle, Colonius, Hans
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Attention
Attention - physiology
Cognition
Cognition - physiology
Cues
Female
Humans
Life Sciences
Male
Neurons and Cognition
Photic Stimulation
Reaction Time
Reaction Time - physiology
Saccades
Saccades - physiology
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Summary:Although saccadic reaction times to a visual stimulus are facilitated if an auditory accompanying stimulus is presented at the same location, this intersensory facilitation effect (IFE) has not been explored for antisaccades (saccades directed opposite to a visual target). In this study participants were asked to make an antisaccade opposite to a point of light presented right or left of fixation while accompanied by an auditory stimulus either at the same or at the opposite location with different stimulus onset asynchronies. Antisaccade reaction times for unimodal auditory and bimodal stimuli were shorter than for unimodal visual stimulation, in line with prosaccade studies. The auditory accompanying stimulus afforded antisaccade reaction times approximately as fast as prosaccades in the direction of a visual target, especially when it was presented 40 ms before the spatially congruent visual target. Moreover, predictiveness of the target position facilitated performance only when the auditory stimulus was presented at the opposite location and 40 ms before the visual target (interstimulus contingency effect). We conclude that intersensory facilitation is a mandatory, bottom-up process, but in the particular case of a response conflict due to a visual target, IFE can be shown to be modulated by the predictability of the target location.
ISSN:0014-4819
1432-1106
DOI:10.1007/s00221-005-2383-x