Click or press Space the moment you hear the beep. Humans are typically 20–30ms faster to audio cues than visual ones. 5-trial average.
Auditory reaction time is typically 20–40ms faster than visual reaction time. This is because auditory processing requires fewer neural steps — sound goes from cochlea to brainstem to motor cortex, while visual signals must pass through more cortical processing stages.
Compare with your Visual Reaction Time to see your multimodal profile. Track both in your dashboard.
Human auditory reaction time averages 170–200ms — consistently 30–50ms faster than visual reaction time (~250–284ms). The gap exists because of fundamental neuroanatomical differences in each sensory pathway. The visual pathway from retina to motor cortex involves approximately six synaptic relays and passes through the lateral geniculate nucleus and multiple visual cortex areas. The auditory pathway from cochlea to motor cortex has fewer relays and benefits from an additional subcortical shortcut through the superior colliculus — a structure that coordinates rapid orienting responses to sounds.
This difference has real-world implications: in sports like sprint running, the starting gun is used rather than a visual signal precisely because auditory RT is faster and more consistent. Track and field regulations even define a 100ms false start threshold based on auditory RT minimums — any response faster than 100ms is classified as anticipation rather than genuine reaction.
If you use Bluetooth headphones or speakers, your audio reaction scores will be artificially inflated by 50–200ms of wireless transmission latency. This can completely mask your genuine auditory RT advantage — or even make you appear slower than your visual RT. For accurate results, use wired headphones or your device's built-in speakers.
A simple test: if your audio RT is within 20ms of your visual RT, Bluetooth lag is likely inflating it. If audio RT is 30–50ms faster, your hardware is adding minimal latency. For maximum accuracy, use wired headphones and compare directly with your Visual Reaction Time score on the same device.