AUDITORY-VISUAL SPATIAL INTERACTION AND MODULARITY

The results of studies dealing with the conditions for pairing visual and auditory data coming from spatially separate locations argue for cognitive impenetrability and computational autonomy, the pairing rules being the Gestalt principles of common fate and proximity. Other data provide evidence for pairing with several properties of modular functioning. Arguments for domain specificity are inferred from comparison with audio-visual speech. Suggestion of innate specification can be found in developmental data indicating that the grouping of visual and auditory signals is supported very early in life by the same principles that operate in adults. Support for a specific neural architecture comes from neurophysiological studies of the bimodal (auditory-visual) neurons of the cat superior colliculus. Auditory-visual pairing thus seems to present the four main properties of the Fodorian module.