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Published on: May 15, 2019
Visual objects approaching the body modulate subsequent somatosensory processing at 4 months of age
Giulia Orioli1,2, Irene Parisi3,4, José L van Velzen3
1Centre for Developmental Science, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. g.orioli@bham.ac.uk.
Insights
The infant brain supports dynamic crossmodal interactions for peripersonal space representation early in life. Somatosensory evoked potentials show developing neural processing of visual-somatosensory integration in the first year.
Area of Science:
- Developmental neuroscience
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Sensory processing
Background:
- Peripersonal space representation is crucial for navigating the environment.
- Understanding the early development of crossmodal interactions is key to cognitive development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the infant brain supports dynamic crossmodal interactions between vision and somatosensation in the first year of life.
- To determine the developmental trajectory of neural representations of peripersonal space.
Main Methods:
- Electrophysiological recordings of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in 4- and 8-month-old infants.
- Presentation of unattended visual motion (approaching/receding) followed by vibrotactile stimuli.
- Analysis of SEP modulation in response to visual-somatosensory pairings.
Main Results:
- 4-month-olds showed enhanced SEPs following unattended approaching visual motion, indicating early visual-somatosensory integration.
- 8-month-olds exhibited age-dependent changes in SEP enhancement following receding visual motion.
- These findings suggest the emergence and refinement of peripersonal space representations within the first year of life.
Conclusions:
- Dynamic visual-somatosensory cortical interactions for peripersonal space representation emerge early in infancy.
- Neural underpinnings of peripersonal space representations undergo significant changes throughout the first year of life.
Abstract:
We asked whether, in the first year of life, the infant brain can support the dynamic crossmodal interactions between vision and somatosensation that are required to represent peripersonal space. Infants aged 4 (n = 20, 9 female) and 8 (n = 20, 10 female) months were presented with a visual object that moved towards their body or receded away from it. This was presented in the bottom half of the screen and not fixated upon by the infants, who were instead focusing on an attention getter at the top of the screen. The visual moving object then disappeared and was followed by a vibrotactile stimulus occurring later in time and in a different location in space (on their hands). The 4-month-olds' somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were enhanced when tactile stimuli were preceded by unattended approaching visual motion, demonstrating that the dynamic visual-somatosensory cortical interactions underpinning representations of the body and peripersonal space begin early in the first year of life. Within the 8-month-olds' sample, SEPs were increasingly enhanced by (unexpected) tactile stimuli following receding visual motion as age in days increased, demonstrating changes in the neural underpinnings of the representations of peripersonal space across the first year of life.
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