Young children do not integrate visual and haptic information
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- Istituto di Neurofisiologia, Area di Pisa
- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa
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This manuscript is a preprint. A published version is available at:
10.1016/j.cub.2008.04.036 (Peer Reviewed) Published in Current Biology. 2008 May 6;18(9):694-8.- Document Type:
- Manuscript
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- Received 16 January 2008 06:54 UTC; Posted 16 January 2008
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- Neuroscience
- Abstract:
Several studies have shown that adults integrate visual and haptic information (and information from other modalities) in a statistically optimal fashion, weighting each sense according to its reliability. To date no studies have investigated when this capacity for cross-modal integration develops. Here we show that prior to eight years of age, integration of visual and haptic spatial information is far from optimal, with either vision or touch dominating totally, even in conditions where the dominant sense is far less precise than the other (assessed by discrimination thresholds). For size discrimination, haptic information dominates in determining both perceived size and discrimination thresholds, while for orientation discrimination vision dominates. By eight-ten years, the integration becomes statistically optimal, like adults. We suggest that during development, perceptual systems require constant recalibration, for which cross-sensory comparison is important. Using one sense to calibrate the other precludes useful combination of the two sources.
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Gori, Monica, Del Viva, Michela, Sandini, Giulio, and Burr, David. Young children do not integrate visual and haptic information. Available from Nature Precedings <http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2008.1521.1> (2008)
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Published version:
10.1016/j.cub.2008.04.036 (Peer Reviewed) Published in Current Biology. 2008 May 6;18(9):694-8. -
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Camilo Libedinsky on 21 January 2008 20:52 UTC
If your explanation for the observed asymetries is correct, then it might be expected that during puberty, when our bodies grow at a faster rate than before (I think that’s true, but I’m not sure), this coordination of modalities would once again fall into relying in different modalities for different discriminations, and then, once again, re-coordinate after the adolecent stops growing fast.
Is that a fair assumption?