Multisensory Integration and Child Neurodevelopment

Abstract

A considerable number of cognitive processes depend on the integration of multisensory information. The brain integrates this information, providing a complete representation of our surrounding world and giving us the ability to react optimally to the environment. Infancy is a period of great changes in brain structure and function that are reflected by the increase of processing capacities of the developing child. However, it is unclear if the optimal use of multisensory information is present early in childhood or develops only later, with experience. The first part of this review has focused on the typical development of multisensory integration (MSI). We have described the two hypotheses on the developmental process of MSI in neurotypical infants and children, and have introduced MSI and its neuroanatomic correlates. The second section has discussed the neurodevelopmental trajectory of MSI in cognitively-challenged infants and children. A few studies have brought to light various difficulties to integrate sensory information in children with a neurodevelopmental disorder. Consequently, we have exposed certain possible neurophysiological relationships between MSI deficits and neurodevelopmental disorders, especially dyslexia and attention deficit disorder with/without hyperactivity.

Using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy to assess social information processing in poor urban Bangladeshi infants and toddlers

“…In young infants in high income countries, auditory processing has been shown to be dominant when auditory and visual stimuli are presented simultaneously (Robinson & Sloutsky, ; Sloutsky & Napolitano, ). Auditory dominance has been reported to extend to at least 8 years of age(Dionne‐Dostie, Paquette, Lassonde, & Gallagher, ; Nava & Pavani, ), although there is some evidence that preschoolers are able to flexibly shift their attention to auditory or visual stimuli when they are presented simultaneously (Noles & Gelman, ). The extent to which 36‐month‐olds are able to attend to simultaneous but incongruent audiovisual stimuli is not well understood.…”

Altered multisensory temporal integration in obesity

“…Multisensory integration determines the span-life nature of human cognition36 as it promotes heightened attention, perceptual processing and memory in adults as well as in infants37. Hence, alteration in this process may cascade into high-level cognitive deficits, well described in obese people3839404142434445.…”

The Interplay Between Multisensory Associative Learning and IQ in Children

“…However, it is not until 9 months of age that optimal multisensory enhancements that cannot be predicted by unisensory processes start to emerge (Neil, Chee-Ruiter, Scheier, Lewkowicz, & Shimojo, 2006). These processes continue to mature throughout late childhood and adolescence (e.g., Barutchu et al, 2009;Brandwein et al, 2011;Dionne-Dostie, Paquette, Lassonde, & Gallagher, 2015;Downing, Barutchu, & Crewther, 2014;Gori, Del Viva, Sandini, & Burr, 2008;Nardini, Jones, Bedford, & Braddick, 2008).…”