Multisensory Contributions in Joint Actions: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

Solving tasks with others is fundamental in our daily life and requires coordinating actions with other agents in time and space. To manage such real-time interactions, humans must deal with uncertainty caused by noise and delays in sensory and motor signals. One mechanism the sensorimotor system may employ to reduce uncertainty is exploiting information from multiple sensory systems. Here, we review empirical studies examining how visual, auditory, and haptic information contribute to joint actions. A systematic search following PRISMA guidelines yielded 24 eligible studies, which we classified according to the taxonomies by Knoblich et al. (2011) - emergent vs planned coordination - and Jarrassé et al. (2012) - co-activity, cooperation, and collaboration. Across emergent and planned coordination, access to multiple sensory channels generally enhanced interpersonal coordination. The review provides indications that the weighting of sensory signals depends on their reliability and task relevance. However, studies directly testing integration principles are rare, and learning in the context of multisensory integration in joint action remains unexplored. We argue that experimentally testing multisensory integration mechanisms in joint actions and investigating training-related changes offers valuable avenues for further research, advancing theoretical understanding and practical applications across domains such as sports, rehabilitation, and human-robot interaction.