Multisensory processing is required for the perception of the majority of everyday objects and events. In the case of irrelevant stimuli, the multisensory processing of features is widely assumed to be modulated by attention. In the present study, we investigated whether the processing of audiovisual distractors is also modulated by higher-order cognition. Participants fixated a visual distractor viewed via a centrally-placed mirror and responded to a laterally-presented audiovisual target. Critically, a distractor tone was presented from the same location as the mirror, while the visual distractor feature was presented at an occluded location, visible only indirectly via mirror reflection. Consequently, it appeared as though the visual and auditory features were presented from the same location though, in fact, they actually originated from different locations. Nevertheless, the results still revealed that the visual and auditory distractor features were processed together just as in the control condition, in which the audiovisual distractor features were both actually presented from fixation. Taken together, these results suggest that the processing of irrelevant multisensory information is not influenced by higher-order cognition.

中文翻译：

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高阶认知不影响多感官干扰处理。

大多数日常物体和事件的感知需要多感官处理。在不相关刺激的情况下，特征的多感官处理被广泛认为是由注意力调制的。在本研究中，我们调查了视听干扰因素的处理是否也受高阶认知的调节。参与者注视着通过中央放置的镜子观察的视觉干扰物，并对横向呈现的视听目标做出反应。关键的是，干扰音是从与镜子相同的位置呈现的，而视觉干扰特征则呈现在一个被遮挡的位置，只能通过镜面反射间接看到。因此，看起来好像视觉和听觉特征是从同一位置呈现的，但实际上，它们实际上来自不同的地方。尽管如此，结果仍然表明视觉和听觉干扰特征被一起处理，就像在控制条件下一样，其中视听干扰特征实际上都是从注视中呈现出来的。综上所述，这些结果表明对不相关的多感官信息的处理不受高阶认知的影响。