Abstract
Sound-induced flash illusion (SiFI) is an auditory-dominated audiovisual integration phenomenon that can be used as a reliable indicator of audiovisual integration. Although previous studies have found that Tai Chi exercise has a promoting effect on cognitive processing, such as executive functions, the effect of Tai Chi exercise on early perceptual processing has yet to be investigated. This study used the classic SiFI paradigm to investigate the effects of long-term Tai Chi exercise on multisensory integration in older adults. We compared older adults with long-term Tai Chi exercise experience with those with long-term walking exercise. The results showed that the accuracy of the Tai Chi group was higher than that of the control group under the fusion illusion condition, mainly due to the increased perceptual sensitivity to flashes. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the fission illusion. These results indicated that the fission and fusion illusions were affected differently by Tai Chi exercise, and this was attributable to the association of the participants' flash discriminability with them. The present study provides preliminary evidence that long-term Tai Chi exercise improves older adults' multisensory integration, which occurs in early perceptual processing.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
When the FA rate was 0, it was replaced with 1/(2 N); When the Hit rate was 1, it was replaced with 1–1/(2 N).
The Sensory Organization Test (SOT) is a laboratory-based assessment designed to test the sensory interactions involved in maintaining balance. The participants were instructed to stand still lasted 20 s during each condition, which included a combination of occluded vision, visual references, and a swaying surface (Peterka and Black 1990).
References
Abadi RV, Murphy JS (2014) Phenomenology of the sound-induced flash illusion. Exp Brain Res 232(7):2207–2220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-3912-2
Andersen TS, Tiippana K, Sams M (2004) Factors influencing audiovisual fission and fusion illusions. Cogn Brain Res 21(3):301–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.06.004
Bedard G, Barnett-Cowan M (2016) Impaired timing of audiovisual events in the elderly. Exp Brain Res 234(1):331–340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4466-7
Bidelman GM (2016) Musicians have enhanced audiovisual multisensory binding: experience-dependent effects in the double-flash illusion. Exp Brain Res 234(10):3037–3047. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4705-6
Brewer JA, Worhunsky PD, Gray JR, Tang YY, Weber J, Kober H (2011) Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108(50):20254–20259. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112029108
Cecere R, Rees G, Romei V (2015) Individual differences in alpha frequency drive crossmodal illusory perception. Curr Biol 25(2):231–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.11.034
Chan JS, Connolly SK, Setti A (2018) The number of stimulus-onset asynchronies affects the perception of the sound-induced flash illusion in young and older adults. Multisens Res 31(3–4):175–190. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134808-00002605
Chan YM, Pianta MJ, McKendrick AM (2014) Older age results in difficulties separating auditory and visual signals in time. J vis 14(11):13–13. https://doi.org/10.1167/14.11.13
Chen Q, Zhou X (2013) Vision dominates at the preresponse level and audition dominates at the response level in cross-modal interaction: behavioral and neural evidence. J Neurosci 33(17):7109–7121. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1985-12.2013
Chen YC, Maurer D, Lewis TL, Spence C, Shore DI (2017) Central–peripheral differences in audiovisual and visuotactile event perception. Atten Percept Psychophys 79(8):2552–2563. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-017-1396-4
Cohen H, Heaton LG, Congdon SL, Jenkins HA (1996) Changes in sensory organization test scores with age. Age Ageing 25(1):39–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/25.1.39
Cheon SM, Chae BK, Sung HR, Lee GC, Kim JW (2013) The efficacy of exercise programs for Parkinson’s disease: Tai Chi versus combined exercise. J Clin Neurol 9(4):237–243. https://doi.org/10.3988/jcn.2013.9.4.237
Cooke J, Poch C, Gillmeister H, Costantini M, Romei V (2019) Oscillatory properties of functional connections between sensory areas mediate cross-modal illusory perception. J Neurosci 39(29):5711–5718. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.3184-18.2019
DeLoss DJ, Pierce RS, Andersen GJ (2013) Multisensory integration, aging, and the sound-induced flash illusion. Psychol Aging 28(3):802–812. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033289
Diederich A, Colonius H (2015) The time window of multisensory integration: relating reaction times and judgments of temporal order. Psychol Rev 122(2):232–241. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038696
Faul F, Erdfelder E, Buchner A, Lang AG (2009) Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behav Res Methods 41(4):1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149
Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A (2007) G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods 39(2):175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146
Hautus MJ, Macmillan NA, Creelman CD (2021) Detection theory: a user’s guide, 3rd edn. Routledge, New York
Hirst RJ, McGovern DP, Setti A, Shams L, Newell FN (2020) What you see is what you hear: twenty years of research using the sound-induced flash illusion. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 118:759–774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.09.006
Hirst RJ, Setti A, Kenny RA, Newell FN (2019) Age-related sensory decline mediates the sound-induced flash illusion: evidence for reliability weighting models of multisensory perception. Sci Rep 9(1):19347. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55901-5
Ho RT, Fong TC, Wan AH, Au-Yeung FS, Wong CP, Ng WY, Cheung IK, Lo PH, Ng SM, Chan CL, Chen EY (2016) A randomized controlled trial on the psychophysiological effects of physical exercise and Tai-chi in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 171(1):42–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2016.01.038
Huang J, Wang E, Lu K, Wang A, Zhang M (2022) Long-term training reduces the responses to the sound-induced flash illusion. Atten Percept Psychophys 84(2):529–539. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02363-5
Kaganovich N, Schumaker J (2016) Electrophysiological correlates of individual differences in perception of audiovisual temporal asynchrony. Neuropsychologia 86:119–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.04.015
Keil J, Müller N, Hartmann T, Weisz N (2013) Prestimulus beta power and phase synchrony influence the sound-induced flash illusion. Cereb Cortex 24(5):1278–1288. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs409
Kerr CE, Shaw JR, Wasserman RH, Chen VW, Kanojia A, Bayer T, Kelley JM (2008) Tactile acuity in experienced Tai Chi practitioners: evidence for use dependent plasticity as an effect of sensory-attentional training. Exp Brain Res 188(2):317–322. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1409-6
Kostaki M, Vatakis A (2016) Crossmodal binding rivalry: A “race” for integration between unequal sensory inputs. Vis Res 127:165–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2016.08.004
Lam LC, Chau RC, Wong BM, Fung AW, Lui VW, Tam CC, Leung GT, Kwok TC, Chiu HF, Ng S, Chan WM (2011) Interim follow-up of a randomized controlled trial comparing Chinese style mind body (Tai Chi) and stretching exercises on cognitive function in subjects at risk of progressive cognitive decline. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 26(7):733–740. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.2602
Laurienti PJ, Burdette JH, Maldjian JA, Wallace MT (2006) Enhanced multisensory integration in older adults. Neurobiol Aging 27(8):1155–1163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2005.05.024
Li Q, Yang HM, Sun F, Wu JL (2015) Spatiotemporal relationships among audiovisual stimuli modulate auditory facilitation of visual target discrimination. Perception 44(3):232–242. https://doi.org/10.1068/p7846
Liu F, Chen X, Nie P, Lin S, Guo J, Chen J, Yu L (2021) Can tai chi improve cognitive function? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Altern Complement Med 27(12):1070–1083. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2021.0084
Lv X, Ren X, Guo C, Tang L (2022) Tai Chi exercise training enhances executive function and fluid intelligence of healthy older adults: cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence. Psychol Sport Exerc 58:102–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2021.102105
McCormick D, Mamassian P (2008) What does the illusory-flash look like? Vis Res 48(1):63–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2007.10.010
McGovern DP, Roudaia E, Stapleton J, McGinnity TM, Newell FN (2014) The sound-induced flash illusion reveals dissociable age-related effects in multisensory integration. Front Aging Neurosci 6:250. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00250
Meredith M, Nemitz J, Stein B (1987) Determinants of multisensory integration in superior colliculus neurons. I Temporal Factors J Neurosci 7(10):3215–3229. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.07-10-03215.1987
Merriman NA, Whyatt C, Setti A, Craig C, Newell FN (2015) Successful balance training is associated with improved multisensory function in fall-prone older adults. Comput Hum Behav 45:192–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.017
Michail G, Keil J (2018) High cognitive load enhances the susceptibility to non-speech audiovisual illusions. Sci Rep 8(1):11530. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30007-6
Mishra J, Martinez A, Hillyard SA (2008) Cortical processes underlying sound-induced flash fusion. Brain Res 1242:102–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2008.05.023
Mishra J, Martínez A, Hillyard SA (2010) Effect of attention on early cortical processes associated with the Sound-induced Extra Flash Illusion. J Cogn Neurosci 22(8):1714–1729. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21295
Mishra J, Martinez A, Sejnowski TJ, Hillyard SA (2007) Early cross-modal interactions in auditory and visual cortex underlie a sound-induced visual illusion. J Neurosci 27(15):4120–4131. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.4912-06.2007
Moro SS, Steeves JK (2018) Normal temporal binding window but no sound-induced flash illusion in people with one eye. Exp Brain Res 236(6):1825–1834. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-018-5263-x
Noesselt T, Tyll S, Boehler CN, Budinger E, Heinze HJ, Driver J (2010) Sound-induced enhancement of low-intensity vision: multisensory influences on human sensory-specific cortices and thalamic bodies relate to perceptual enhancement of visual detection sensitivity. J Neurosci 30(41):13609–13623. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.4524-09.2010
Noguchi Y (2022) Individual differences in beta frequency correlate with the audio–visual fusion illusion. Psychophysiology 59(8):e14041. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14041
O’Brien J, Ottoboni G, Tessari A, Setti A (2017) One bout of open skill exercise improves cross-modal perception and immediate memory in healthy older adults who habitually exercise. PLoS ONE 12(6):e0178739. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178739
Peterka RJ, Black FO (1990) Age-related changes in human posture control: sensory organization tests. J Vestib Res 1(1):73–85
Port AP, Santaella DF, Lacerda SS, Speciali DS, Balardin JB, Lopes PB, Afonso RF, Radvany J, Amaro E, Kozasa EH (2018) Cognition and brain function in elderly Tai Chi practitioners: a case-control study. EXPLORE 14(5):352–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2018.04.007
Schmalzl L, Crane-Godreau MA, Payne P (2014) Movement-based embodied contemplative practices: definitions and paradigms. Front Hum Neurosci 8:205. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00205
Setti A, Stapleton J, Leahy D, Walsh C, Kenny RA, Newell FN (2014) Improving the efficiency of multisensory integration in older adults: audio-visual temporal discrimination training reduces susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion. Neuropsychologia 61:259–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.06.027
Shams L, Kamitani Y, Shimojo S (2000) What you see is what you hear. Nature 408(6814):788–788. https://doi.org/10.1038/35048669
Shams L, Kamitani Y, Shimojo S (2002) Visual illusion induced by sound. Cogn Brain Res 14(1):147–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-6410(02)00069-1
Spence C (2011) Crossmodal correspondences: a tutorial review. Atten Percept Psychophys 73(4):971–995. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-010-0073-7
Spence C (2013) Just how important is spatial coincidence to multisensory integration? Evaluating the spatial rule. Ann NY Acad Sci 1296:31–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.12121
Stapleton J, Setti A, Doheny EP, Kenny RA, Newell FN (2014) A standing posture is associated with increased susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion in fall-prone older adults. Exp Brain Res 232(2):423–434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3750-7
Stein BE, Scott Huneycutt W, Meredith MA (1988) Neurons and behavior: the same rules of multisensory integration apply. Brain Res 448(2):355–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(88)91276-0
Stein BE, Stanford TR (2008) Multisensory integration: current issues from the perspective of the single neuron. Nat Rev Neurosci 9(4):255–266. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2331
Stevenson RA, Zemtsov RK, Wallace MT (2012) Individual differences in the multisensory temporal binding window predict susceptibility to audiovisual illusions. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 38(6):1517–1529. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027339
Sun Y, Liu X, Li B, Sava-Segal C, Wang A, Zhang M (2020) Effects of repetition suppression on sound induced flash illusion with aging. Front Psychol 11:216. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00216
Sungkarat S, Boripuntakul S, Chattipakorn N, Watcharasaksilp K, Lord SR (2017) Effects of Tai Chi on cognition and fall risk in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled trial. J Am Geriatr Soc 65(4):721–727. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.14594
Tao J, Liu J, Egorova N, Chen X, Sun S, Xue X, Huang J, Zheng G, Wang Q, Chen L, Kong J (2016) Increased hippocampus-medial prefrontal cortex resting-state functional connectivity and memory function after Tai Chi Chuan practice in elder adults. Front Aging Neurosci 8:25. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00025
Taylor-Piliae RE, Newell KA, Cherin R, Lee MJ, King AC, Haskell WL (2010) Effects of Tai Chi and Western exercise on physical and cognitive functioning in healthy community-dwelling older adults. J Aging Phys Act 18(3):261–279. https://doi.org/10.1123/japa.18.3.261
Tsang WW, Hui-Chan CW (2004) Effect of 4- and 8-wk intensive Tai Chi training on balance control in the elderly. Med Sci Sports Exerc 36(4):648–657. https://doi.org/10.1249/01.mss.0000121941.57669.bf
Tsang WW, Wong VS, Fu SN, Hui-Chan CW (2004) Tai Chi improves standing balance control under reduced or conflicting sensory conditions. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 85(1):129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2003.02.002
Violentyev A, Shimojo S, Shams L (2005) Touch-induced visual illusion. NeuroReport 16(10):1107–1110. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001756-200507130-00015
Wang Q, Guo L, Bao M, Chen L (2015) Perception of visual apparent motion is modulated by a gap within concurrent auditory glides, even when it is illusory. Front Psychol 6:564. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00564
Watkins S, Shams L, Josephs O, Rees G (2007) Activity in human V1 follows multisensory perception. Neuroimage 37(2):572–578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.05.027
Watkins S, Shams L, Tanaka S, Haynes JD, Rees G (2006) Sound alters activity in human V1 in association with illusory visual perception. Neuroimage 31(3):1247–1256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.01.016
Wayne PM, Walsh JN, Taylor-Piliae RE, Wells RE, Papp KV, Donovan NJ, Yeh GY (2014) Effect of Tai Chi on cognitive performance in older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Geriatr Soc 62(1):25–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.12611
Wozny DR, Beierholm UR, Shams L (2008) Human trimodal perception follows optimal statistical inference. J vis 8(3):24–24. https://doi.org/10.1167/8.3.24
Wu M-T, Tang P-F, Goh JOS, Chou T-L, Chang Y-K, Hsu Y-C, Chen Y-J, Chen N-C, Tseng W-YI, Gau SS-F, Chiu M-J, Lan C (2018) Task-switching performance improvements after Tai Chi Chuan training are associated with greater prefrontal activation in older adults. Front Aging Neurosci 10:24. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00280
Xie H, Zhang M, Huo C, Xu G, Li Z, Fan Y (2019) Tai Chi Chuan exercise related change in brain function as assessed by functional near–infrared spectroscopy. Sci Rep 9(1):13198. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49401-9
Yang Y, Li XY, Gong L, Zhu YL, Hao YL (2014) Tai Chi for improvement of motor function, balance and gait in Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 9(7):e102942. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102942
Zhang C, Sun W, Yu B, Song Q, Mao D (2015) Effects of exercise on ankle proprioception in adult women during 16 weeks of training and eight weeks of detraining. Res Sports Med 23(1):102–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/15438627.2014.915835
Zhou HY, Cheung EF, Chan RC (2020) Audiovisual temporal integration: cognitive processing, neural mechanisms, developmental trajectory and potential interventions. Neuropsychologia 140:107396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107396
Funding
This research was supported by the Suzhou Science and Technology Development Plan [People’s Livelihood Science and Technology: SKY2022113], the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of Soochow University (22XM0017), Interdiscipline Research Team of Humanities and Social Sciences of Soochow University (2022) and the 14th five-year plan of Jiangsu Province Education Science (B/2021/01/87). M.Z. was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871092) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (20K04381).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
AW and MZ designed the experiments. SL and CY performed the experiments, TW analyzed the data. AW and TW interpreted the results and developed the theoretical framework. AW and TW wrote the paper, and AW and MZ revised the paper.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Ethical approval
This work was approved by the Academic Committee of the Department of Psychology, Soochow University and was conducted according to the most recent iteration of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Consent to participate
All participants read a letter of information prior to participation and gave informed written consent.
Additional information
Communicated by Bill J Yates.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, A., Wang, T., Li, S. et al. Long-term Tai Chi training reduces the fusion illusion in older adults. Exp Brain Res 241, 517–526 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06544-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06544-6