title: Age Differences in Visual-Auditory Self-Motion Perception during a Simulated Driving Task.
abstract: Recent evidence suggests that visual-auditory cue integration may change as a function of age such that integration is heightened among older adults. Our goal was to determine whether these changes in multisensory integration are also observed in the context of self-motion perception under realistic task constraints. Thus, we developed a simulated driving paradigm in which we provided older and younger adults with visual motion cues (i.e., optic flow) and systematically manipulated the presence or absence of congruent auditory cues to self-motion (i.e., engine, tire, and wind sounds). Results demonstrated that the presence or absence of congruent auditory input had different effects on older and younger adults. Both age groups demonstrated a reduction in speed variability when auditory cues were present compared to when they were absent, but older adults demonstrated a proportionally greater reduction in speed variability under combined sensory conditions. These results are consistent with evidence indicating that multisensory integration is heightened in older adults. Importantly, this study is the first to provide evidence to suggest that age differences in multisensory integration may generalize from simple stimulus detection tasks to the integration of the more complex and dynamic visual and auditory cues that are experienced during self-motion.
authors.affiliation: Research/iDAPT, Toronto Rehabilitation InstituteToronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramkhalawansingh
authors.affiliation: Research/iDAPT, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Behrang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Keshavarz
authors.affiliation: Research/iDAPT, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Haycock
authors.affiliation: Research/iDAPT, Toronto Rehabilitation InstituteToronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada; Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Saba
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shahab
authors.affiliation: Research/iDAPT, Toronto Rehabilitation InstituteToronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Campos
keywords: Multisensory Integration and Aging; older driver; principle of inverse effectiveness; self-motion perception; visual-auditory integration