title: Multisensory perceptual learning is dependent upon task difficulty.
abstract: There has been a growing interest in developing behavioral tasks to enhance temporal acuity as recent findings have demonstrated changes in temporal processing in a number of clinical conditions. Prior research has demonstrated that perceptual training can enhance temporal acuity both within and across different sensory modalities. Although certain forms of unisensory perceptual learning have been shown to be dependent upon task difficulty, this relationship has not been explored for multisensory learning. The present study sought to determine the effects of task difficulty on multisensory perceptual learning. Prior to and following a single training session, participants completed a simultaneity judgment (SJ) task, which required them to judge whether a visual stimulus (flash) and auditory stimulus (beep) presented in synchrony or at various stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) occurred synchronously or asynchronously. During the training session, participants completed the same SJ task but received feedback regarding the accuracy of their responses. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three levels of difficulty during training: easy, moderate, and hard, which were distinguished based on the SOAs used during training. We report that only the most difficult (i.e., hard) training protocol enhanced temporal acuity. We conclude that perceptual training protocols for enhancing multisensory temporal acuity may be optimized by employing audiovisual stimuli for which it is difficult to discriminate temporal synchrony from asynchrony.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Graduate Program, Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Vanderbilt University, 7110 MRB III BioSci Bldg, 465, 21st Ave South, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA. matthew.a.de.niear@vanderbilt.edu.|Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA. matthew.a.de.niear@vanderbilt.edu.|Medical Scientist Training Program, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA. matthew.a.de.niear@vanderbilt.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: De Niear
authors.affiliation: Undergraduate Neuroscience Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA.
authors.forename: Bonhwang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Koo
authors.affiliation: Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical School, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA.|Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA.|Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA.
authors.forename: Mark T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Wallace
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011897:Random Allocation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Multisensory; Perceptual learning; Plasticity; Temporal; Training