Multisensory Integration Develops Late in Humans

Excerpt

Recent studies suggest that human infants can transfer information gleaned from one sense to another (e.g., Streri 2003; Streri et al. 2004). For example, 1-month-old infants can visually recognize an object they have previously explored orally (Gibson and Walker 1984; Meltzoff and Borton 1979) and 2-month-old infants can visually recognize an object they have previously felt (Rose 1981; Streri et al. 2008). However, many of these studies show an asymmetry in the transfer (Sann and Streri 2007; Streri 2003; Streri et al. 2008) or a partial dominance of one modality over another (Lewkowicz 1988a, 1988b), supporting the idea that, even when multimodal skills are present, they are not necessarily fully mature. Recent results (Bremner et al. 2008a, 2008b) on the representation of peripersonal space support the presence of two distinct mechanisms in sensory integration with different developmental trends: the first, relying principally on visual information, is present during the first 6 months; the second, incorporating information of hand and body posture with visual, develops only after 6.5 months of age.

Over the past years, the majority of multisensory studies in infants and children have investigated the development of multisensory matching, transfer, and facilitation abilities, whereas few of those have investigated the development of multisensory integration. Those few that did investigate multisensory integration in school-age children point to unimodal dominance rather than integration abilities (Hatwell 1987; Klein 1966; McGurk and Power 1980; Misceo et al. 1999).