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Published on: August 1, 2018
Dorsal stream function in the young child: an fMRI investigation of visually guided action
Karin H James1, Alyssa J Kersey2
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Insights
Young children primarily use the inferior parietal sulcus (IPS) and cerebellum for visually guided actions. This suggests mature dorsal stream functions in early childhood, establishing a benchmark for developmental neuroscience research.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Visually guided action is fundamental to human behavior.
- The neural basis for the development of visual-motor skills in children remains largely unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural substrates supporting visually guided action in young children (4-7 years old).
- To document the development of the visual-motor system in early childhood.
Main Methods:
- Utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
- Employed a novel technique to measure real-time visually guided actions within the MRI environment.
Main Results:
- Children predominantly engaged the inferior parietal sulcus (IPS) and cerebellum during visually guided actions.
- This neural activation pattern was consistent across three distinct visually guided tasks, indicating generalizability.
- Minor task-specific differences in neural processing were observed.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest that the functional organization of the dorsal stream is relatively mature in young children.
- This study provides a foundational benchmark for future research on the developmental trajectory of neural circuits for visually guided action.
Abstract:
Visually guided action is a ubiquitous component of human behavior, but the neural substrates that support the development of this behavior are unknown. Here we take an initial step in documenting visual-motor system development in the young (4- to 7-year-old) child. Through functional MRI and by using a new technique to measure the mechanisms underlying real-time visually guided action in the MRI environment, we demonstrate that children rely primarily on the IPS and cerebellum for this complex behavior. This pattern is consistent across three different visually guided actions, suggesting generalizability of these neural substrates across such tasks. However, minor differences in neural processing across tasks were also demonstrated. Overall, results are interpreted as demonstrating that the functions of the dorsal stream can be viewed as fairly mature in the young child. These results provide a benchmark for future studies that aim to understand the development of the neural circuitry for visually guided action.
