Visual stimulation enhances auditory processing in 3‐month‐old infants and adults

Abstract

Behavioral work demonstrates human infants are sensitive to a host of intersensory properties and this sensitivity promotes early learning and memory. However, little is known regarding the neural basis of this ability in infants. Using event-related potentials (ERPs) with infants and adults, we show that during passive viewing auditory evoked brain responses are increased with the presence of simultaneous visual stimulation. Results converge with previous adult neuroimaging studies, single-cell recordings in nonhuman animals, and behavioral studies with human infants to provide evidence for an elevated status of multisensory stimulation in infancy. Furthermore, these results may provide a neural marker of multisensory audio-visual processing in infants that can be used to test developmental theories of how information is integrated across the senses to form a unitary perception of the world.

Behavioral and Neural Foundations of Multisensory Face-Voice Perception in Infancy

“…Some initial evidence of greater neural responses to bimodal compared to unimodal stimulation has also been observed in infants (Hyde, Jones, Porter, & Flom, 2010;Reynolds, Bahrick, Lickliter, & Guy, 2014). In one experiment, Hyde and colleagues (2010) compared event-related potentials to bimodal stimulation (i.e., a large colored circle paired with a "bong" sound and a small circle paired with a "ping" sound), unimodal auditory stimulation (i.e., the lower pitched "bong" and higher pitched "ping" sounds), and unimodal visual stimulation (i.e., the large and small colored circles) in 3-month-old infants and adults.…”

Neural Dynamics of Audiovisual Synchrony and Asynchrony Perception in 6-Month-Old Infants

“…Second, it appears that the size of the temporal range of audiovisual integration does not change reliably in the first year of life (Lewkowicz, 1996). Third, as noted above, the general sensitivity of some early ERP components to the manipulation of multisensory phenomena seems to be more pronounced in infants older than 3 months (Hyde et al, 2010, 2011). Finally, 6-month-olds are awake and attentive enough to conduct an EEG experiment over a period of several minutes that yields sufficient data for ERP averaging.…”

“…Hyde et al (2010) investigated 3-month-olds’ neural responses to bimodal versus unimodal presentation of circles and tones. In contrast to a number of findings in adults (see above), early auditory components were not sensitive to the experimental manipulation at this age.…”

Near-infrared spectroscopy shows right parietal specialization for number in pre-verbal infants

“…This attrition rate is characteristic of studies measuring the brain response to static visual stimuli in infants using ERPs (e.g. Berger, Tzur, & Posner, 2006; Izard et al, 2008; Hyde, Jones, Porter, & Flom, 2010; Hyde & Spelke, in press; Libertus et al, 2009; Quinn, Westerlund, & Nelson, 2006). …”