Depth cues and perceived audiovisual synchrony of biological motion

Due to their different propagation times, visual and auditory signals from external events arrive at the human sensory receptors with a disparate delay. This delay consistently varies with distance, but, despite such variability, most events are perceived as synchronic. There is, however, contradictory data and claims regarding the existence of compensatory mechanisms for distance in simultaneity judgments. Principal Findings: In this paper we have used familiar audiovisual events – a visual walker and footstep sounds – and manipulated the number of depth cues. In a simultaneity judgment task we presented a large range of stimulus onset asynchronies corresponding to distances of up to 35 meters. We found an effect of distance over the simultaneity estimates, with greater distances requiring larger stimulus onset asynchronies, and vision always leading. This effect was stronger when both visual and auditory cues were present but was interestingly not found when depth cues were impoverished. Significance: These findings reveal that there should be an internal mechanism to compensate for audiovisual delays, which critically depends on the depth information available.FEDERFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Interaction between implanted fluorine atoms and point defects in preamorphized silicon

We have studied, by means of B diffusion analyses, the effect of F on the point defect density in preamorphized Si. Through molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) Si samples containing a special B multi-spike were grown. These samples were amorphized to a depth of 550 nm by implanting Si at liquid nitrogen temperature and then enriched with F at different energies (65-150 keV) and fluences (0.7-5 x 10(14)/cm(2)). After solid phase epitaxy (SPE) of the samples, we induced, by thermal annealing at 850 degrees C, the emission of Si self-interstitials (Is) from the end-of-range (EOR) defects. We studied the diffusion of the B spikes, demonstrating that F effectively reduces the B diffusion. This reduction is shown to be caused not by a direct B-F chemical interaction, but by a F interaction with point defects. In particular, F is able to reduce the density of Is, which are responsible for the B diffusion. Still, we showed that F does not appreciably influence the Is emission from the EOR defects, but a local interaction occurs between F atoms and Is after the release of these defects from the EOR region. This interaction results in a consistent reduction of B diffusivity in F enriched regions