Investigating developmental changes in susceptibility to temporal audiovisual illusions on balance and sensorimotor function in children

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dc.contributor.authorHirst, Rebecca J.
dc.contributor.authorMcKenna, Eimear
dc.contributor.authorSetti, Annalisa
dc.contributor.authorNewell, Fiona N.
dc.contributor.funderScience Foundation Ireland(SFI)
dc.date.accessioned2026-09-10T10:32:01Z
dc.date.available2026-09-10T10:32:01Z
dc.date.issued2026-03-25
dc.description© 2026, the Author(s) . This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
dc.description.abstractBalance and movement rely on multisensory input. In older adults, audiovisual integration—measured via the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion (SIFI)—has been linked to balance and motor performance, suggesting that multisensory perceptual measures may relate to functional motor abilities. This study explored whether similar links exist in childhood or emerge later in development. A total of 118 children aged 4–17 years of age completed (1) a balance task (standing on one leg, eyes open vs. closed), (2) a timed visuomotor task (maximum target hits in 2 min), and (3) the SIFI task (judging flashes paired with beeps at varying stimulus onset asynchronies, SOAs). Older children used vision more for balance, showed better visuomotor performance, and were less susceptible to SIFI illusions at longer SOAs, indicating developmental refinement in audiovisual integration. However, we found no strong evidence linking SIFI performance with balance or motor performance. Exploratory analyses revealed that children with dance training and those who found the task easier were slightly less susceptible to the illusion. These results suggest that links between multisensory integration and sensorimotor performance may not be present in early childhood or may require more sensitive measures to detect, offering a potential avenue for future research.en
dc.description.sponsorshipScience Foundation Ireland|19/FFP/6812
dc.format.extent15
dc.format.extent2916467
dc.identifier.articleid14921
dc.identifier.authororcidHirst, Rebecca J.
dc.identifier.authororcidMcKenna, Eimear
dc.identifier.authororcidSetti, Annalisa§0000-0002-9741-2559
dc.identifier.authororcidNewell, Fiona N.
dc.identifier.citationHirst, R J, McKenna, E, Setti, A & Newell, F N 2026, 'Investigating developmental changes in susceptibility to temporal audiovisual illusions on balance and sensorimotor function in children', Scientific Reports, vol. 16, no. 1, 14921, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-44660-9
dc.identifier.doi10.1038/s41598-026-44660-9
dc.identifier.endpage15
dc.identifier.issn2045-2322
dc.identifier.issued1
dc.identifier.journaltitleScientific Reports
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0002-9741-2559/work/226384971
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/19233
dc.identifier.urlhttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105038571051
dc.identifier.volume16
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightscc_by_nc_nd
dc.subjectAudiovisual integration
dc.subjectBalance
dc.subjectChild development
dc.subjectMultisensory processing
dc.subjectSound-induced flash illusion (SIFI)
dc.subjectVisuomotor skill
dc.subject[AppliedPsychology]
dc.subjectMultidisciplinary
dc.titleInvestigating developmental changes in susceptibility to temporal audiovisual illusions on balance and sensorimotor function in childrenen
dc.typeArticle (Peer reviewed)
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