Compression of auditory space during rapid head turns.

Abstract

Studies of spatial perception during visual saccades have demonstrated compressions of visual space around the saccade target. Here we psychophysically investigated perception of auditory space during rapid head turns, focusing on the "perisaccadic" interval. Using separate perceptual and behavioral response measures we show that spatial compression also occurs for rapid head movements, with the auditory spatial representation compressing by up to 50%. Similar to observations in the visual system, this occurred only when spatial locations were measured by using a perceptual response; it was absent for the behavioral measure involving a nose-pointing task. These findings parallel those observed in vision during saccades and suggest that a common neural mechanism may subserve these distortions of space in each modality.