Dataset Information

Multisensory convergence of visual and haptic object preference across development.

ABSTRACT: Visuohaptic inputs offer redundant and complementary information regarding an object?s geometrical structure. The integration of these inputs facilitates object recognition in adults. While the ability to recognize objects in the environment both visually and haptically develops early on, the development of the neural mechanisms for integrating visual and haptic object shape information remains unknown. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in three groups of participants, 4 to 5.5 year olds, 7 to 8.5 year olds, and adults. Participants were tested in a block design involving visual exploration of two-dimensional images of common objects and real textures, and haptic exploration of their three-dimensional counterparts. As in previous studies, object preference was defined as a greater BOLD response for objects than textures. The analyses specifically target two sites of known visuohaptic convergence in adults: the lateral occipital tactile-visual region (LOtv) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Results indicated that the LOtv is involved in visuohaptic object recognition early on. More importantly, object preference in the LOtv became increasingly visually dominant with development. Despite previous reports that the lateral occipital complex (LOC) is adult-like by 8 years, these findings indicate that at least part of the LOC is not. Whole-brain maps showed overlap between adults and both groups of children in the LOC. However, the overlap did not build incrementally from the younger to the older group, suggesting that visuohaptic object preference does not develop in an additive manner. Taken together, the results show that the development of neural substrates for visuohaptic recognition is protracted compared to substrates that are primarily visual or haptic.

SUBMITTER: Joanne Jao R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4020146 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Multisensory convergence of visual and haptic object preference across development.

Joanne Jao R R James Thomas W TW Harman James Karin K

Neuropsychologia 20140219

Visuohaptic inputs offer redundant and complementary information regarding an object׳s geometrical structure. The integration of these inputs facilitates object recognition in adults. While the ability to recognize objects in the environment both visually and haptically develops early on, the development of the neural mechanisms for integrating visual and haptic object shape information remains unknown. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in three groups of ...[more]

PMID: 24560914

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Project description:Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have provided ample evidence for the involvement of the lateral occipital cortex (LO), fusiform gyrus (FG), and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in visuo-haptic object integration. Here we applied 30 min of sham (non-effective) or real offline 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to perturb neural processing in left LO immediately before subjects performed a visuo-haptic delayed-match-to-sample task during fMRI. In this task, subjects had to match sample (S1) and target (S2) objects presented sequentially within or across vision and/or haptics in both directions (visual-haptic or haptic-visual) and decide whether or not S1 and S2 were the same objects. Real rTMS transiently decreased activity at the site of stimulation and remote regions such as the right LO and bilateral FG during haptic S1 processing. Without affecting behavior, the same stimulation gave rise to relative increases in activation during S2 processing in the right LO, left FG, bilateral IPS, and other regions previously associated with object recognition. Critically, the modality of S2 determined which regions were recruited after rTMS. Relative to sham rTMS, real rTMS induced increased activations during crossmodal congruent matching in the left FG for haptic S2 and the temporal pole for visual S2. In addition, we found stronger activations for incongruent than congruent matching in the right anterior parahippocampus and middle frontal gyrus for crossmodal matching of haptic S2 and in the left FG and bilateral IPS for unimodal matching of visual S2, only after real but not sham rTMS. The results imply that a focal perturbation of the left LO triggers modality-specific interactions between the stimulated left LO and other key regions of object processing possibly to maintain unimpaired object recognition. This suggests that visual and haptic processing engage partially distinct brain networks during visuo-haptic object matching.

Dataset Information

Multisensory convergence of visual and haptic object preference across development.

Publications

Multisensory convergence of visual and haptic object preference across development.

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