Developmental changes in the multisensory temporal binding window persist into adolescence

By Andrea Hillock-Dunn, Mark T. Wallace. 2012

148 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We live in a world rich in sensory information, and consequently the brain is challenged with deciphering which cues from the various sensory modalities belong together. Determinations regarding the relatedness of sensory information appear to be based, at least in part, on the spatial and temporal relationships between the stimuli. Stimuli that are presented in close spatial and temporal correspondence are more likely to be associated with one another and thus ‘bound’ into a single perceptual entity. While there is a robust literature delineating behavioral changes in perception induced by multisensory stimuli, maturational changes in multisensory processing, particularly in the temporal realm, are poorly understood. The current study examines the developmental progression of multisensory temporal function by analyzing responses on an audiovisual simultaneity judgment task in 6- to 23-year-old participants. The overarching hypothesis for the study was that multisensory temporal function will mature with increasing age, with the developmental trajectory for this change being the primary point of inquiry. Results indeed reveal an age-dependent decrease in the size of the ‘multisensory temporal binding window’, the temporal interval within which multisensory stimuli are likely to be perceptually bound, with changes occurring over a surprisingly protracted time course that extends into adolescence.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Sensory Systems, Social Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Multisensory Processes: A Balancing Act across the Lifespan (2016, background): “Recent work focused on characterizing the developmental trajectory of the TBW has found that it does not fully mature until well into adolescence [48].”
Early Experience & Multisensory Perceptual Narrowing (2014, background): “…to rely on them for the perception of the multisensory coherence of a broad variety of multisensory events including light flashes and beeping sounds, moving and impacting objects, and audiovisual speech (Dixon & Spitz, 1980; Hillock-Dunn & Wallace, 2012; Lewkowicz, 2010; Lewkowicz & Flom, 2013).”
The Audio-Visual Temporal Binding Window Narrows In Early Childhood (2013, unknown): “…simultaneity task where subjects are given trials consisting of an auditory and visual stimulus and the subject’s task is to indicate whether the stimuli are simultaneous or asynchronous (Fujisaki, Shimojo, Kashino, & Nishida, 2004; Hillock et al., 2011; Hillock-Dunn & Wallace, 2012).”
The Construct of the Multisensory Temporal Binding Window and its Dysregulation in Developmental Disabilities (2014, background): “Adapted from Hillock-Dunn and Wallace (2012a, 2012b). M.T. Wallace, R.A. Stevenson / Neuropsychologia 64 (2014) 105–123 111”
The temporal binding window for audiovisual speech: Children are like little adults (2016, methodology): “…the basis for apparent differences in processing of linguistic and non-linguistic stimuli, and the emergence of mature audiovisual temporal perception of speech during childhood versus adolescence for low-level stimuli (flashes and tone pips) (Hillock-Dunn & Wallace, 2012; Hillock et al., 2011).”