Shared Temporal Accuracy of Action Execution and Sensory Perception

Integration of an action and its sensory feedback is important in interacting with an uncertain environment and construct a consistent model of the world. In this process, multisensory data need to be processed, in which audition and vision play important roles. Subjective simultaneity of audiovisual stimuli is affected by various factors. To investigate the relation between our subjective simultaneity of audiovisual stimuli and our action, we conducted an experiment in which subjects ’ action affected the temporal patterns of resulting stimuli. The modes of contingency between action and stimuli were made variable. We found significant correlations between the accuracies of actions and the "window " of subjective simultaneity among subjects, although their task performances were widely varied. In addition, the correlation patterns were found to depend on the contingency between the key pressing and stimuli. These results suggest that the subjective simultaneity of audiovisual stimuli correlates with the accuracy of execution of action, indicating a common mechanism engaging the perception of subjective simultaneity in sensorimotor integration and action execution