Cross-modal facilitation of auditory discrimination in a frog.
Biol Lett
; 18(6): 20220098, 2022 06.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35765810
ABSTRACT
Stimulation in one sensory modality can affect perception in a separate modality, resulting in diverse effects including illusions in humans. This can also result in cross-modal facilitation, a process where sensory performance in one modality is improved by stimulation in another modality. For instance, a simple sound can improve performance in a visual task in both humans and cats. However, the range of contexts and underlying mechanisms that evoke such facilitation effects remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated cross-modal stimulation in wild-caught túngara frogs, a species with well-studied acoustic preferences in females. We first identified that a combined visual and seismic cue (vocal sac movement and water ripple) was behaviourally relevant for females choosing between two courtship calls in a phonotaxis assay. We then found that this combined cross-modal stimulus rescued a species-typical acoustic preference in the presence of background noise that otherwise abolished the preference. These results highlight how cross-modal stimulation can prime attention in receivers to improve performance during decision-making. With this, we provide the foundation for future work uncovering the processes and conditions that promote cross-modal facilitation effects.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Percepção Auditiva
/
Percepção Visual
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article