The development of attentional control mechanisms in multisensory environments

Nora Turoman; Ruxandra I Tivadar; Chrysa Retsa; Anne M Maillard; Gaia Scerif; Pawel J Matusz

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100930

The development of attentional control mechanisms in multisensory environments

Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Apr:48:100930. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100930. Epub 2021 Jan 29.

Authors

Nora Turoman¹, Ruxandra I Tivadar², Chrysa Retsa³, Anne M Maillard⁴, Gaia Scerif⁵, Pawel J Matusz⁶

Affiliations

¹ The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology and Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Information Systems Institute at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais), Sierre, 3960, Switzerland; Working Memory, Cognition and Development lab, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
² The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology and Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Cognitive Computational Neuroscience group, Institute of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
³ The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology and Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁴ Service des Troubles du Spectre de l'Autisme et apparentés, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK.
⁶ The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Department of Radiology and Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Information Systems Institute at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais), Sierre, 3960, Switzerland; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. Electronic address: pawel.matusz@gmail.com.

Abstract

Outside the laboratory, people need to pay attention to relevant objects that are typically multisensory, but it remains poorly understood how the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms develop. We investigated when adult-like mechanisms controlling one's attentional selection of visual and multisensory objects emerge across childhood. Five-, 7-, and 9-year-olds were compared with adults in their performance on a computer game-like multisensory spatial cueing task, while 129-channel EEG was simultaneously recorded. Markers of attentional control were behavioural spatial cueing effects and the N2pc ERP component (analysed traditionally and using a multivariate electrical neuroimaging framework). In behaviour, adult-like visual attentional control was present from age 7 onwards, whereas multisensory control was absent in all children groups. In EEG, multivariate analyses of the activity over the N2pc time-window revealed stable brain activity patterns in children. Adult-like visual-attentional control EEG patterns were present age 7 onwards, while multisensory control activity patterns were found in 9-year-olds (albeit behavioural measures showed no effects). By combining rigorous yet naturalistic paradigms with multivariate signal analyses, we demonstrated that visual attentional control seems to reach an adult-like state at ∼7 years, before adult-like multisensory control, emerging at ∼9 years. These results enrich our understanding of how attention in naturalistic settings develops.

Keywords: Attentional control; Development; Electrical neuroimaging; Multisensory; N2pc; Visual attention.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Auditory Perception
Child
Child, Preschool
Cognition
Cues
Electroencephalography
Female
Humans
Male
Neuroimaging*
Photic Stimulation
Visual Perception
Young Adult