Visual Information and Sound Locations

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Introduction
Scientists have researched the integration of visual and auditory spatial information for many decades. Through this research, the scientific community has acquired knowledge pertaining to the benefit that the brain receives from combining both visual and spatial information. The benefit from the contribution of both modalities in terms of spatial localization results because both audition and vision provide distinctive and complimentary information to the brain. Although scientific evidence can confirm that, through direct projection, vision provides reliable and accurate information for spatial localization. Audition is also very important in terms of spatial localization due to the broad range of information it can provide about the location of a desired signal in any direction.
Audition provides invaluable information when a visual stimulus is not available or the visual stimulus is hidden or camouflaged. Spatial localization that results from the combination of both modalities is more reliable than when only using either modality in isolation. The following paper will discuss research that verified visual dominance in spatial localization, with additional evidence that supports how important audition is in terms of spatial localization.
Background
Visual Dominance
Those who have been exposed to a ventriloquist act have observed the effects of visual dominance in spatial localization. This phenomenon occurs when a human identifies the auditory stimulus as initiating from near the visual stimulus, when the stimuli are inharmonious (Knudsen & Brainard 1995). Visual localization can even influence the localization of an auditory stimulus when visual and auditory stimuli are es...

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