Late‐ but not early‐onset blindness impairs the development of audio‐haptic multisensory integration

Scheller, Meike; Proulx, Michael J.; de Haan, Michelle; Dahlmann‐Noor, Annegret; Petrini, Karin

Abstract

Integrating different senses to reduce sensory uncertainty and increase perceptual precision can have an important compensatory function for individuals with visual impairment and blindness. However, how visual impairment and blindness impact the development of optimal multisensory integration in the remaining senses is currently unknown. Here we first examined how audio-haptic integration develops and changes across the life span in 92 sighted (blindfolded) individuals between 7 and 70 years of age. We used a child-friendly task in which participants had to discriminate different object sizes by touching them and/or listening to them. We assessed whether audio-haptic performance resulted in a reduction of perceptual uncertainty compared to auditory-only and haptic-only performance as predicted by maximum-likelihood estimation model. We then compared how this ability develops in 28 children and adults with different levels of visual experience, focussing on low-vision individuals and blind individuals that lost their sight at different ages during development. Our results show that in sighted individuals, adult-like audio-haptic integration develops around 13–15 years of age, and remains stable until late adulthood. While early-blind individuals, even at the youngest ages, integrate audio-haptic information in an optimal fashion, late-blind individuals do not. Optimal integration in low-vision individuals follows a similar developmental trajectory as that of sighted individuals. These findings demonstrate that visual experience is not necessary for optimal audio-haptic integration to emerge, but that consistency of sensory information across development is key for the functional outcome of optimal multisensory integration.

Research Highlights
- Audio-haptic integration follows principles of statistical optimality in sighted adults, remaining stable until at least 70 years of life.
- Near-optimal audio-haptic integration develops between 13–15 years in sighted adolescents.
- Blindness within the first 8 years of life facilitates the development of optimal audio-haptic integration while blindness after 8 years impairs such development.
- Sensory consistency in early childhood is crucial for the development of optimal multisensory integration in the remaining senses.

Citation

Scheller, M., Proulx, M. J., de Haan, M., Dahlmann‐Noor, A., & Petrini, K. (2021). Late‐ but not early‐onset blindness impairs the development of audio‐haptic multisensory integration. Developmental Science, 24(1), Article e13001. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 26, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 7, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-01
• Deposit Date: Mar 11, 2022
• Journal: Developmental Science
• Print ISSN: 1363-755X
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-7687
• Publisher: Wiley
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: e13001
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13001
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1212911