Auditory and tactile perception of musical intervals: a pilot study

Conference item

The perception of consonance and dissonance has been widely explored in the auditory domain, but little is known about how consonant or dissonant frequency ratios are processed in other sensory modalities, such as touch. In this study, we examined whether consonance-like properties extend to touch by comparing participants' ratings of pleasantness and fusion for both vibrotactile and auditory stimuli generated from frequency ratios well known in Western music theory (i.e., corresponding to all of the possible intervals within an octave). The two sensory modalities were assessed in separate experimental sessions, with auditory stimuli presented dichotically and vibrotactile stimuli delivered as sinusoidal displacements to the fingertips of the participants' hands. Our results indicate that participants' ratings of pleasantness remained consistent across modalities, whereas fusion ratings followed different patterns in audition and touch, influenced by stimulus frequency. Additionally, in the auditory domain, pleasantness and fusion ratings were correlated while, in the tactile domain, pleasantness and fusion exhibited a U-shaped relationship and a relatively low correlation. The results of this work reveal consistencies in perception across the two modalities (i.e., audition and touch), highlighting the need for further investigation into how vibratory stimuli are processed and perceived across different senses. This research paves the way for future studies on cross-modal consonance.

Authors: Deiana, D; Ansani, A; Di Pino, G; Formica, D; Spence, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: IEEE
• Host title: 2025 IEEE Medical Measurements & Applications (MeMeA)
• Pages: 1-6
• Publication date: 2025-07-10
• Acceptance date: 2025-06-01
• Event title: 20th IEEE Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA 2025)
• Event location: Chania, Greece
• Event website: https://memea2025.ieee-ims.org/
• Event start date: 2025-05-28
• Event end date: 2025-05-30
• DOI: 10.1109/memea65319.2025.11068071
• EISSN: 2837-5882
• ISSN: 2837-5874
• Language: English
• Keywords: hands; correlation; frequency-domain analysis; music