Visual motion or flashing lights can evoke auditory sensations in some people. This large-scale internet study aimed to validate a combined subjective/objective test of the genuineness of this putative form of synaesthesia (visually-evoked auditory response, vEAR). Correlations were measured between each individual's ratings of the vividness of auditory sensations evoked by a series of looping videos, and measurement of the videos' physical low-level motion energy, calculated using Adelson and Bergen’s (1985) computational model of low-level visual motion processing. The strength of this association for each individual provided a test of how strongly subjective vEAR was driven by objective motion energy (‘ME-sensitivity’). A second aim was to infer whether vEAR depends on cortical excitation and/or disinhibition of early visual and/or auditory brain areas. To achieve this, correlations were measured between the above vEAR measures and visual contrast surround-suppression, which is thought to index lateral inhibition in the early visual system. As predicted by a disinhibition account of vEAR, video ratings were overall higher in individuals showing weaker surround-suppression. Interestingly, surround-suppression and ME-sensitivity did not correlate. Additionally, both surround-suppression and ME-sensitivity each independently predicted different clusters of trait measures selected for their possible association with cortical excitability and/or disinhibition: Surround-suppression was associated with vEAR self-ratings and auditory-evoked visual phosphenes, while ME-sensitivity was independently associated with ratings of other traits including susceptibility to migraine and pattern glare. Altogether, these results suggest there are two independent mechanisms underlying vEAR and its associated traits, based putatively on cortical disinhibition versus excitability.

视觉动作或闪光灯会引起某些人的听觉感觉。这项大规模的互联网研究旨在验证这种联觉假定形式（视觉诱发听觉反应，vEAR）的真实性的主观/客观测试相结合。测量了每个人对一系列循环视频所引起的听觉生动程度的评价与视频物理低级运动能量的测量之间的相关性，这些测量是使用Adelson和Bergen（1985）的低级视觉运动计算模型计算的处理。每个人的这种联系的强度提供了对客观运动能量（“ ME敏感性”）驱动主观vEAR强度的测试。第二个目的是推断vEAR是否取决于早期视觉和/或听觉大脑区域的皮质兴奋和/或抑制作用。为了实现这一点，在上述vEAR量度和视觉对比度环绕抑制之间测量了相关性，这被认为可以指示早期视觉系统中的横向抑制。正如对vEAR的禁忌症所预测的，显示环绕声抑制较弱的个人的视频收视率总体较高。有趣的是，周围抑制和ME敏感性没有相关性。此外，周围抑制和ME敏感性各自独立地预测了不同的特征量簇，这些特征量选择是由于它们可能与皮层兴奋性和/或抑制作用相关：周围抑制与vEAR自评和听觉诱发视觉visual有关。而ME敏感性与其他特征的评级独立相关，包括对偏头痛和图案眩光的敏感性。总而言之，这些结果表明vEAR及其相关性状有两个独立的机制，这些机制可能是基于皮质的去抑制性与兴奋性。