The Effects Of Audiovisual Integration On The Efficiency Of Attention Networks

Audiovisual integration refers to the interaction and integration of information from different sensory modalities(e.g.visual and auditory information)into a unified,coherent and meaningful perceptual process.There is an interactive relationship between attention and audiovisual integration,that is,they affect each other.According to the model of attention network,attention can be divided into three networks: alerting,orienting and executive control.Alerting network is a state in which an individual remains highly sensitive.Orienting network means positioning attention to the information you choose to pay attention to.Executive control network refers to the ability to supervise irrelevant information and resolve conflicts.Although previous studies have found that audiovisual integration affects attention,it is still unclear which attention subnetwork it affects.Does audiovisual integration have the same effect on the three attention networks? The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of audiovisual integration on the processing efficiency of three attentional networks.This study adopted the classic attention network test(ANT)by three experiments.There are three independent variables: 4(cue: no cue,center cue,double cue,spatial cue),3(target task type: neutral,congruent,incongruent),2(target modality type: visual(V)and audiovisual(AV)).The dependent variable are the response and accuracy of the subjects,to directly investigate the effect of audiovisual integration on the processing efficiency of the three networks of attention.Among them,the audiovisual integration was measured by relatively multisensory response enhancement,and the processing efficiency of the three networks was obtained by the subtraction of the response time under different cue and target stimulus conditions.Experiment 1 adopted the classical ANT paradigm to present on the left and right auditory stimulus at the same time as the target stimulus.The results showed that when the target stimulus was accompanied by sound,the processing efficiency of the alerting and orienting network was lower than that of the unaccompanied sound,but there was no significant difference in the processing efficiency of the executive control network.Experiment 2 also adopted the classical ANT paradigm to present an auditory stimulus providing spatial information when the target stimulus appeared.That is,when the middle arrow in the target stimulus goes to the left,the sound will appear in the left ear,and when the middle arrow goes to the right,the sound will appear in the right ear,that is,the sound will always appear in the same direction as the middle arrow.The results showed that the processing efficiency of the executive control network is lower when the target stimulus was accompanied by sound than when the target stimulus was not accompanied by sound,but there was no significant difference between the processing efficiency of the alerting and orienting network.Experiment 3 also adopted the classical ANT paradigm to present an auditory stimulus providing semantic information when the target stimulus When the middle arrow in the target stimulus goes to the left,a female voice reads out 'left';when the middle arrow in the target stimulus goes to the right,a female voice reads out 'right'.Sound is presented bilaterally.The results showed that the processing efficiency of the orienting network was lower when the target stimulus was accompanied by sound than when the target stimulus was not accompanied by sound,but there was no significant difference between the processing efficiency of the alerting and executive control networks.Taken together,the findings show that audiovisual integration can reduce the processing efficiency of attention network,but it might be related to the nature of auditory stimulation.That is,the audiovisual integration produced by different auditory stimuli has different effects on the processing efficiency of attention networks.This study preliminarily elucidated the effect of audiovisual integration on three attention networks,and provided new evidence for the interaction between attention and audiovisual integration.