Long-term Tai Chi training reduces the fusion illusion in older adults
Author: Aijun Wang#1, Tingting Wang#2, Shuyi Li2, Chunlin Yue3, Ming Zhang4,5
Affiliation:
1 Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China. ajwang@suda.edu.cn.
2 Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China.
3 School of Physical Education and Sport Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China. y_chunlin002@163.com.
4 Department of Psychology, Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China. psyzm@suda.edu.cn.
5 Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan. psyzm@suda.edu.cn.
Conference/Journal: Exp Brain Res
Date published: 2023 Jan 8
Other:
Special Notes: doi: 10.1007/s00221-023-06544-6. , Word Count: 210
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.
Keywords: Ageing; Multisensory integration; Perceptual sensitivity; Sound-induced flash illusion; Tai Chi.
PMID: 36611123 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06544-6
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