Cross-modal sensory interactions:
Function of one sense is changed by stimulation of another sense, function could be sensitivity, perceived intensity or other measures of people’s responsiveness. E.g: Vision affected by hearing, etc.
McGurk Effect:
How visual information affects our auditory information, despite us already knowing the difference. It once was a theory for visual domination, but this is not 100% true.
Sensory integration:
Flashing disc —> beeping sound —> then have conditions —> flash once, then 2 beeps —> then subjects reported they saw it twice. Evidence of auditory stimuli overriding visual.
Common cross-modal sensory interactions:
Taste – odour
Colour – flavour (vision and flavour)
Taste — odour interaction:
Taste and odour compounds that have complimentary characters are presented together, the intensity of perception of the combination is stronger than when either is presented alone, example —> vanilla.
When combining two below threshold stimuli —> (if presented in isolation, cant detect) but when together —> can detect.
What are not cross-modal sensory interactions:
Fat content, temperature, viscosity —> cross-modal is more about perception rather than physical changes.
Factors influencing measures of interaction:
Familiarity: Yields stronger effects, more familiar = ^ effect
Congruency: Taste intensity was enhanced for congruent mixtures but not for non-congruent mixtures
Previous experience: An interaction will occur when the odour and taste have previously been experienced conjointly.
Visual flavour (odour / taste) interactions:
Colour (appearance) has a strong influence on flavour perception, colour influences absolute threshold measures, identification and discrimination of flavour.
Individual differences in cross-modal sensory interactions:
Synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon —> stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in second sensory or cognitive pathways.
Within modality is the example of colours associated with numbers and most common is across modalities —> music, hear music and hear visual image in their mind.
Thermal taster:
Temperature has a taste, when we are exposed to cold or hot things, our taste receptors are in activation. Hard to notice in day-to-day life, Prevalence is up to 30% of the population, its kind of subjective.
Neural correlates of CM interaction:
New study, expose subjects to image of food and look at the insular cortex —> it is evoked —> used as a way to confirm brain activations.
