Multisensory enhancement: gains in choice and in simple response times

Human observers can detect combinations of multisensory signals faster than each of the corresponding signals presented separately. In simple detection tasks, this facilitation in response times may reflect an enhancement in the perceptual processing stage or/and in the motor response stage. The current study compared the multisensory enhancements obtained in simple and choice response times (SRT and CRT, respectively) in bi- and tri-sensory (audio-visual-haptic) signal combinations using an identical experimental setup that differed only in the tasks-detecting the signals (SRT) or reporting the signals' location (CRT). Our measurements show that RTs were faster in the multisensory combinations conditions compared to the single stimulus conditions and that the absolute multisensory gains were larger in CRT than in SRT. These results can be interpreted in two ways. According to a serial stages model, the larger multisensory gains in CRT may suggest that when combinations of multisensory signals are presented, an additional enhancement occurs in the cognitive processing stages engaged in the CRT, beyond the enhancement in the perceptual and motor stages common to both SRT and CRT. Alternatively, the results suggest that multisensory enhancement reflect task-dependent interactions within and between multiple processing levels rather than facilitated processing modules. Thus, the larger absolute multisensory gains in CRT may reflect the inverse effectiveness principle, and Bayesian statistics, in that the maximal multisensory enhancements occur in the more difficult (less precise) uni-sensory conditions, i.e., in the CRT.