Multisensory integration was assessed using two audiovisual illusions. In the McGurk effect, auditory speech perception is altered by incongruent visual speech. In the Shams illusion, the number of seen flashes is altered by an incongruent number of heard beeps. The illusions were tested in 10-year-old children, whose musical aptitude was also assessed. The strength of the McGurk effect was not linked to musical aptitude. However, children with high musical aptitude scores had a weaker Shams illusion and a narrower temporal window of integration, suggesting that they integrate non-speech information more selectively than children with low musical aptitude. These findings imply that musical aptitude influences multisensory integration selectively for rapid non-speech events.

Index Terms: audiovisual speech, McGurk effect, Shams illusion, multisensory integration, musical aptitude.