Spatial attentional shifts: further evidence for the role of polysensory mechanisms using visual and tactile stimuli.

Normal subjects performed simple reaction time responses to lateralized visual target stimuli (Experiment 1) and lateralized tactile target stimuli (Experiment 2). In each experiment, the lateralized targets were preceded at one of four intervals by a visual or tactile cue located on the same (valid cue), or opposite (invalid cue) side, or on both sides (neutral cue). The validity of the visual and tactile cues influenced the speed of response to either target stimulus. These findings, together with those previously reported (Buchtel and Butter, Neuropsychologia 26, 499-509, 1988), are consistent with the view that intra- and inter-modal spatial cueing is effective with modalities that are linked to orienting systems in which movements of the sensory array serve to improve sensory analysis.