Auditory information is important for the perception of object-related biological motion and the prediction of action effects. How does audiovisual temporal congruency influence visual action perception? Observers of a table tennis stroke may gain vital information about the intended action from the point in time, that marks the contact of racket and ball. If the contact occurs too early, the movement more probably runs not like intended.
Twenty-six observers were examined with fMRI while they watched point-light displays of an opposing table tennis player. The racket and the ball were not displayed. Only the shoulders, the right elbow and wrist were represented by markers. The contact of racket and ball was only detectable by a sound. The sound was presented congruent in time, moved 120ms forward in time, moved to the start of the motion or was skipped at all. The participants were asked to detect the ball flight direction.
Participants performed better in the congruent condition. fMRI data showed that multisensory integration areas in the temporooccipital middle temporal gyrus and the anterior intraparietal sulcus were sensitive to congruency. Most notably the recruitment of internal models of movement in the bilateral ventral premotor cortex and the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus benefited from congruent audiovisual information.