Visual experience affects neural correlates of audio-haptic integration: A case study of non-sighted individuals

Abstract

The ability to reduce sensory uncertainty by integrating information across different senses develops late in humans and depends on cross-modal, sensory experience during childhood and adolescence. While the dependence of audio-haptic integration on vision suggests cross-modal neural reorganization, evidence for such changes is lacking. Furthermore, little is known about the neural processes underlying audio-haptic integration even in sighted adults. Here, we examined electrophysiological correlates of audio-haptic integration in sighted adults (n = 29), non-sighted adults (n = 7), and sighted adolescents (n = 12) using a data-driven electrical neuroimaging approach. In sighted adults, optimal integration performance was predicted by topographical and super-additive strength modulations around 205-285 ms. Data from four individuals who went blind before the age of 8-9 years suggests that they achieved optimal integration via different, sub-additive mechanisms at earlier processing stages. Sighted adolescents showed no robust multisensory modulations. Late-blind adults, who did not show behavioral benefits of integration, demonstrated modulations at early latencies. Our findings suggest a critical period for the development of optimal audio-haptic integration dependent on visual experience around the late childhood and early adolescence.

Keywords: Blindness; Cross-modal plasticity; Development; Electrical neuroimaging; Multisensory integration.