In this project, spearheaded by first author Amra Covic, we investigated the interplay of synchronised audio-visual (AV) stimuli and paying attention to their location.
AV stimuli typically have a processing advantage over unisensory stimuli. Current accounts ascribe this advantage to a secondary process, an automatic attraction of attention. We were thus surprised to find that AV and spatial attention influenced stimulus processing independently and additively, instead.
Our study made use of the frequency tagging (FT) approach. FT allowed us to keep track of two simultaneously presented stimuli. Classically stimuli flicker by switching them on and off. Here, we implemented an extra stimulus rhythm by periodically changing the shape of our grating-like stimuli (Gabor patches).
The paper has just been accepted for publication in NeuroImage.
Find the final version here: bioRxiv. ~PDF
A/C Keitel 