Rhythmic 8-12 Hz auditory stimulation has limited effects on vision

What is it about?

Auditory stimulation can influence visual experience in a variety of ways. Recently, researchers have noted that performance on visual tasks may synchronize to slow auditory rhythms (below about 3 cycles per second). In the past, researchers have also noted performance on visual tasks will synchronize to rhythmic VISUAL stimulation at higher frequencies (8-12 Hz). Here, we asked whether a rhythmic auditory stimulus would impact visual detection in this higher frequency range. We found that visual performance was not influenced by 8-12 Hz auditory stimulation, but that such stimulation could enhance the effects of a concurrent visual rhythm.

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Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Synchronization of visual or other processes to external rhythms has received attention as a means to facilitate communication and prediction across the brain, but there are many questions regarding how and when such synchronization will emerge both within and across sensory modalities. Our results suggest cross-modal synchronization from audition to vision may be limited to relatively slow frequencies.