Table 1 Definitions of key terms from cognitive neuroscience studies to describe concepts relating to multisensory processing, as outlined by Stein et al., 2010
From: Multisensory inclusive design with sensory substitution
Term | Definition | Property the concept is attributed to |
|---|---|---|
Unisensory | Any neural or behavioural process associated with a single sense | Neural or behavioural responses |
Multisensory | Any neural or behavioural process associated with multiple senses | Neural or behavioural responses |
Cross-modal display mode | A display with multiple display modes to channel sensory information of different origins | Display type |
Multisensory integration | A specific multisensory processing where redundant sensory information is optimally integrated to result in a multisensory response significantly different than their unisensory correspondence | Neural or behavioural response |
Multisensory combination | A specific multisensory process where complementary sensory information is combined to result in a more accurate estimate of the sensory source | Neural or behavioural response |
Modality-specific | The sensory information from a source that results in a unisensory response | The sensory source |
Cross-modal | The sensory information from a source that results in a multisensory response | The sensory source |
Spatial coincidence | The spatial overlap between two or more cross-modal stimuli of the same sensory source | The sensory source |
Temporal coincidence | The temporal overlap between two or more cross-modal stimuli of the same sensory source | The sensory source |
Redundancy | The reliability of spatially and temporally overlapping cross-modal stimuli of the same sensory source | The sensory source, and the neural and behavioural response |
Complementary | Sensory information from the same sensory source that is not spatially or temporally overlapping | The sensory source, and the neural and behavioural response |
Inverse effectiveness | The influence of reliability on cross-modal cues in multisensory processing | Neural or behavioural response |
Cross-modal correspondence | Associations between different sensory forms | Neural or behavioural response |