Modifying auditory perception with prisms? Aftereffects of prism adaptation on a wide auditory spectrum in musicians and nonmusicians
Prism adaptation consists of pointing to visual targets while wearing prisms that shift the visual field laterally. The aftereffects are not restricted to sensorimotor level but extend to spatial cognition. There is a link between spatial representation and auditory frequency, with an association of low frequencies on the left side and high frequencies on the right side of space. The present study aimed first at evaluating the representation of auditory frequencies on a wide range of frequencies in musicians and nonmusicians. We used the ‘auditory interval bisection judgment’ within three auditory intervals. The results showed a pseudoneglect behavior in pretest in musicians and nonmusician…
Cross-modal aftereffects of visuo-manual prism adaptation: Transfer to auditory divided attention in healthy subjects.
OBJECTIVE Prism adaptation was shown to modify auditory perception. Using a dichotic listening task, which assesses auditory divided attention, benefits of a rightward prism adaptation were demonstrated in neglect patients (i.e., a syndrome following right hemisphere brain damage) by reducing their left auditory extinction. It is currently unknown whether prism adaptation affects auditory divided attention in healthy subjects. In the present study, we investigated the aftereffects of prism adaptation on dichotic listening. METHOD A sample of 47 young adults performed a dichotic listening task, in which pairs of words were presented with two words sounded simultaneously, one in each ear. Thr…
Wearing glasses to hear differently? Aftereffects of visuomanual prismatic adaptation on auditory perception
Sensorimotor plasticity is defined as the ability to produce an appropriate motor response face to environmental or bodily changes. The classical experimental paradigm to study sensorimotor plasticity is prism adaptation, which consists of pointing to visual targets while wearing prisms that shift the visual field laterally or vertically. Its aftereffects are not restricted to sensorimotor behavior but extend to sensorial modalities not directly involved during prism exposition, such as audition. There exists a mental representation of auditory frequencies in which low auditory frequencies are associated with the left part of space and high auditory frequencies with the right part of space.…