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Published on: May 10, 2019
Multisensory integration in action: Improving goal-directed movement in children with motor impairments
Serena Basta1,2, Eleonora Montagnani1, Marta Bertamino3
1UVIP - Unit for Visually Impaired People, Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy.
Insights
Children with motor impairments show slower responses but benefit from multisensory integration, similar to peers. The MSICLIMB tool assesses multisensory integration in an ecologically valid context, showing learning potential in children.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Rehabilitation Science
Background:
- Perinatal and pediatric brain injuries can cause motor and sensory deficits, impacting quality of life.
- These impairments often disrupt multisensory integration, crucial for goal-directed actions.
- Previous research on multisensory processing lacked ecological validity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce MSICLIMB, a novel climbing wall system for assessing multisensory integration in a dynamic, action-oriented context.
- To compare multisensory integration abilities in children with motor impairments versus typically developing peers.
- To investigate the influence of age and learning on multisensory processing.
Main Methods:
- Developed MSICLIMB, a climbing wall with smart holds emitting auditory, visual, and audiovisual cues.
- Measured reaching times (RT) in response to sensory cues in children with and without motor impairments.
- Analyzed RT differences across sensory conditions, groups, and over trials.
Main Results:
- Children with motor impairments had significantly slower RTs across all conditions.
- Both groups demonstrated faster RTs with multisensory (audiovisual) stimuli, indicating integration benefits.
- RTs improved over trials, especially in the clinical group, suggesting learning.
- Older children responded faster and showed reduced group differences.
Conclusions:
- MSICLIMB is an innovative tool for assessing multisensory integration in an ecologically valid sensorimotor task.
- Multisensory integration facilitates responses in both typically developing children and those with motor impairments.
- The system shows potential for assessing and training multisensory integration in clinical and typical populations.
Abstract:
Perinatal and pediatric brain damages in children, such as those caused by perinatal stroke, often results in motor and sensory impairments that compromise autonomy and quality of life. Such conditions may also disrupt multisensory integration, which is essential for goal-directed actions. While previous studies have examined multisensory processing using laboratory-based paradigms, they often lacked ecological validity. To address this issue, we developed MSICLIMB, a novel climbing wall equipped with smart holds that emit auditory (A), visual (V), and audiovisual (VA) cues, which enables the study of multisensory integration in a dynamic, action-oriented context. We compared children with motor impairments to typically developing peers, measuring their reaching times (RT) in response to randomly presented sensory cues. Children with motor impairments exhibited significantly slower RT across all conditions. However, both groups showed faster RT to multisensory stimuli, highlighting the facilitative effect of multisensory integration. RTs improved over trials, particularly in the clinical group, suggesting learning potential. Age was also a significant factor, with older children demonstrating faster responses and reduced group differences. MSICLIMB is an innovative tool that can be used to assess and potentially train multisensory integration through ecologically valid sensorimotor tasks. It has promising applications in both clinical and typical populations.
