| Shimojo, S., Shams, L. Sensory modalities are not separate modalities: plasticity and interactions Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2001 (11):505-509 [pdf] |
| Historically, perception has been viewed as a modular function, with the different sensory modalities operating independently of each other. Recent behavioral and brain imaging studies challenge this view, by suggesting that cross-modal interactions are the rule and not the exception in perception, and that the cortical pathways previously thought to be sensory-specific are modulated by signals from other modalities. |
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| Shams, L., Kamitani, Y., Shimojo, S. What you see is what you hear Nature 2000 (408):788 [pdf] |
| Traditionally, vision has been considered the dominant modality in our multi-sensory perception of the world. Here we present findings that overturn this established view, by showing that auditory information can change the percept of an unambiguous visual stimulus qualitatively (causing a strong visual illusion). These results indicate that, as with other modalities, our visual percepts are malleable by other modalities. We have discovered a visual illusion which is induced by sound: when a single visual flash is accompanied by multiple auditory beeps, the single flash is incorrectly perceived as multiple flashes. These results were obtained by flashing a uniform white disk (subtending 2° at 5° eccentricity) a variable number of times (spaced 50ms apart) on a black background. |
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