The Vestibular System Influences the Perceived Duration of Lights But Not of Sounds or Touches

Accurately perceiving the duration of stimuli is important for many human behaviours, especially those involving movement such as when catching a ball. However, perceived duration is reportedly different depending on which sense is being monitored, with auditory stimuli often judged as longer than a matched visual stimulus....

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No actionable change for clinical audiology practice; this is a basic-science perceptual finding about vestibular-visual timing and does not affect hearing assessment or rehabilitation protocols.

Understanding that vestibular input selectively distorts visual — but not auditory or tactile — duration perception deepens our model of multisensory timing and may inform future research on vestibular-related perceptual disorders.

1. 01Vestibular system activity alters perceived duration of visual stimuli only.
2. 02No effect of vestibular input on perceived duration of sounds or touches was found.
3. 03Findings suggest modality-specific timing mechanisms in the brain.
4. 04Results published in Multisensory Research, a peer-reviewed perceptual-science journal.
5. 05May have downstream relevance for understanding movement-related perceptual disturbances.

PMID

42628956

DOI

10.1163/22134808-bja10204.

Journal

Multisensory Research

Publication type

research_article

Evidence level

2b

Population

Human participants tested on duration perception across visual, auditory, and tactile modalities with vestibular manipulation

Intervention

Vestibular system stimulation or activation during duration perception tasks

Comparator

Auditory and tactile duration perception under vestibular conditions