Multisensory integration across the senses in young and old adults

Abstract

Stimuli are processed concurrently and across multiple sensory inputs. Here we directly compared the effect of multisensory integration (MSI) on reaction time across three paired sensory inputs in eighteen young (M=19.17 yrs) and eighteen old (M=76.44 yrs) individuals. Participants were determined to be non-demented and without any medical or psychiatric conditions that would affect their performance. Participants responded to randomly presented unisensory (auditory, visual, somatosensory) stimuli and three paired sensory inputs consisting of auditory-somatosensory (AS) auditory-visual (AV) and visual-somatosensory (VS) stimuli. Results revealed that reaction time (RT) to all multisensory pairings was significantly faster than those elicited to the constituent unisensory conditions across age groups; findings that could not be accounted for by simple probability summation. Both young and old participants responded the fastest to multisensory pairings containing somatosensory input. Compared to younger adults, older adults demonstrated a significantly greater RT benefit when processing concurrent VS information. In terms of co-activation, older adults demonstrated a significant increase in the magnitude of visual-somatosensory co-activation (i.e., multisensory integration), while younger adults demonstrated a significant increase in the magnitude of auditory-visual and auditory-somatosensory co-activation. This study provides first evidence in support of the facilitative effect of pairing somatosensory with visual stimuli in older adults.

Enhanced audio–visual interactions in the auditory cortex of elderly cochlear-implant users

“…Previous studies comparing RTs to simple auditory and visual stimuli between young and elderly individuals show significantly faster RTs to auditory compared with visual stimuli in both age groups (Mahoney et al, 2011). These results seem to be at odds with our findings of a condition effect specifically in the elderly individuals.…”

“…This effect is based on the intersensory redundancy and is often referred to as the redundant signals effect (Giard and Peronnet, 1999;Girard et al, 2011;Mahoney et al, 2011;Miller, 1982). Multisensory interactions can be influenced by mild to moderate and extensive hearing loss Musacchia et al, 2009;Puschmann et al, 2014).…”

“…In comparison to information received via one single modality, cross-modal input has been widely shown to facilitate speed as well as accuracy of processing in normal-hearing (NH) listeners (Mahoney et al, 2011;Molholm et al, 2002). This effect is based on the intersensory redundancy and is often referred to as the redundant signals effect (Giard and Peronnet, 1999;Girard et al, 2011;Mahoney et al, 2011;Miller, 1982).…”

“…Multisensory interactions can be affected not only by hearing loss but also by aging (Laurienti et al, 2006;Mahoney et al, 2011). In NH elderly individuals, sensory processes are known to decline, and compensatory strategies may be developed by these individuals to overcome the age-related deficits in unisensory processing (e.g.…”

Right insular damage decreases heartbeat awareness and alters cardio-visual effects on bodily self-consciousness

“…First, our sample is age-matched with the patient, and thus much older than previously tested populations of healthy subjects. We note that increase in age has been shown to affect multisensory integration and peri-and extrapersonal space representation (Bloesch et al, 2013;Caçola et al, 2013;Ghafouri and Lestienne, 2000;Lepelley et al, 2010;Mahoney et al, 2011). Even if these cited studies included participants older than the present age-matched participants, the findings are in line with the idea that increased age affects the integration of multisensory information.…”