Crossmodal links between audition and touch in covert endogenous spatial attention

Lloyd, Donna M.; Merat, Natasha; McGlone, Francis; Spence, Charles · 2003 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/bf03194823

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Summary

This study investigates the nature of crossmodal links between audition and touch within the framework of sustained endogenous (voluntary) covert spatial attention. While previous research has established crossmodal attentional links between vision and audition, and vision and touch, the specific interactions between audition and touch in voluntary attentional orienting remained underexplored. The authors aimed to determine whether attention shifts in one modality automatically induce shifts in the other, or if the two can be directed independently. The research employed an orthogonal spatial cuing paradigm across three experiments. Participants discriminated the elevation (up vs. down) of auditory and tactile targets presented to the left or right of fixation. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to direct attention to a specific side for a "primary" modality while keeping attention diffuse for the "secondary" modality, with target probabilities heavily weighted to encourage this strategy. Experiment 2 examined whether participants could shift attention jointly in both modalities or split attention to opposite sides when targets were likely on different sides for each modality. Experiment 3 replicated the design with participants adopting a crossed-hands posture to test if crossmodal links operate on a body-centered or external spatial representation. The results demonstrated that participants could spatially shift their endogenous attention independently in audition and touch. In Experiment 1, significant reaction time benefits were observed only for targets in the primary modality presented on the expected side; no such benefit occurred for the secondary modality, indicating no automatic crossmodal shift. In Experiment 2, participants successfully split their attention, directing auditory and tactile focus to opposite sides, though this incurred a processing cost compared to joint attention. Experiment 3 revealed that these crossmodal links are updated following posture changes, suggesting they operate on a representation of external space rather than a fixed body-centered map. These findings indicate that endogenous audiotactile spatial attention is more flexible and independent than previously assumed, contrasting with the stronger automatic links often reported in exogenous (stimulus-driven) orienting. The ability to split attention between audition and touch suggests that voluntary attentional control allows for modality-specific spatial filtering. Furthermore, the update of attentional maps during posture change implies that audiotactile integration relies on a dynamic, external spatial framework. This work clarifies the distinct mechanisms governing voluntary versus involuntary crossmodal attention and highlights the functional independence of auditory and tactile spatial processing under voluntary control.

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Topics

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• multisensory crossmodal
• multimodal feedback
• attention selective divided