Poor haptic orientation discrimination in nonsighted children may reflect disruption of cross-sensory calibration
Open accessAbstract
A long-standing question, going back at least 300 years to Berkeley's famous essay, is how sensory systems become calibrated with physical reality. We recently showed [1] that children younger than 8-10 years do not integrate visual and haptic information optimally, but that one or the other sense prevails: touch for size and vision for orientation discrimination. The sensory dominance may reflect crossmodal calibration of vision and touch, where the more accurate sense calibrates the other. This hypothesis leads to a clear prediction: that lack of clear vision at an early age should affect calibration of haptic orientation discrimination. We therefore measured size and orientation haptic discrimination thresholds in 17 congenitally visually impaired children (aged 5-19). Haptic orientation thresholds were greatly impaired compared with age-matched controls, whereas haptic size thresholds were at least as good, and often better. One child with a late-acquired visual impairment stood out with excellent orientation discrimination. The results provide strong support for our crossmodal calibration hypothesis.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Visual experience is important for the development of a representation of the environment even for another sense, consistent with crossmodal calibration.
“What this may mean is that visual experience is important for the development of a representation of the environment even for another sense, consistent with the idea of crossmodal calibration (Gori et al., 2010; Occelli et al., 2013).”
From Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential1 (2016) · cites this paper as Gori et al., 2010
Cites
An Introduction to the Bootstrap
Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1994) · doi:10.1201/9780429246593 · Cited by 40,500 · see citing works
Receptive fields and functional architecture of monkey striate cortex
Hubel, D. H., & Wiesel, T. N. (1968) · The Journal of Physiology · doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1968.sp008455 · Cited by 6,520 · see citing works
Humans integrate visual and haptic information in a statistically optimal fashion
Ernst, M. O., & Banks, M. S. (2002) · Nature · doi:10.1038/415429a · Cited by 4,844 · see citing works
Quest: A Bayesian adaptive psychometric method
Watson, A. B., & Pelli, D. G. (1983) · Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/bf03202828 · Cited by 2,398 · see citing works
Birdsong and human speech: common themes and mechanisms
Doupe, A. J., & Kuhl, P. K. (1999) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.22.1.567 · Cited by 1,633 · see citing works
An Introduction to the Bootstrap.
Kimber, A., Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1994) · Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series D (The Statistician) · doi:10.2307/2348146 · Cited by 1,246 · see citing works
Young Children Do Not Integrate Visual and Haptic Form Information
Gori, M., Del Viva, M., Sandini, G., & Burr, D. C. (2008) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.04.036 · Cited by 547 · see citing works
Self-citationInvolvement of visual cortex in tactile discrimination of orientation
Zangaladze, A., Epstein, C. M., Grafton, S. T., & Sathian, K. (1999) · Nature · doi:10.1038/44139 · Cited by 508 · see citing works
Multiple sensitive periods in human visual development: Evidence from visually deprived children
Lewis, T. L., & Maurer, D. M. (2005) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.20055 · Cited by 424 · see citing works
an essay towards a new theory of vision
Atherton, M. (2019) · doi:10.1002/9781119537403.ch2 · Cited by 360 · see citing works
Sensitive Period for the Development of Human Binocular Vision
Banks, M. S., Aslin, R. Ν., & Letson, R. D. (1975) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1188363 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
Computational models of sensorimotor integration
Zoubin Ghahramani, A., Wolpert, D. M., & Jordan, M. I. (1997) · Advances in psychology · doi:10.1016/s0166-4115(97)80006-4 · Cited by 159 · see citing works
Alary, F., Duquette, M., Goldstein, R., Elaine Chapman, C., Voss, P., La Buissonnière-Ariza, V., & Lepore, F. (2009) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.03.014 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Self-Organization, Computational Maps, and Motor Control
(1997) · Advances in psychology · doi:10.1016/s0166-4115(97)x8001-x · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Adaptation to audiovisual asynchrony modulates the speeded detection of sound
Navarra, J., Hartcher-O’Brien, J., Piazza, E. A., & Spence, C. J. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0810486106 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Tactual Object Exploration and Recognition in Blind and Sighted Children
Morrongiello, B. A., Humphrey, G. K., Timney, B., Choi, J., & Rocca, P. T. (1994) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p230833 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Recalibration by Pairing: A Process of Perceptual Learning
EPSTEIN, W. M. (1975) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p040059 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Mental Rotation of a Tactile Layout by Young Visually Impaired Children
Ungar, S., Blades, M., & Spencer, C. R. (1995) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p240891 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
The role of visual experience on the representation and updating of novel haptic scenes
Pasqualotto, A., & Newell, F. N. (2007) · Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2007.07.009 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
The Influence of Visual Experience on Visual and Spatial Imagery
Noordzij, M. L., Zuidhoek, S., & Postma, A. (2007) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p5390 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Postma, A., Zuidhoek, S., Noordzij, M. L., & Kappers, A. M. L. (2008) · Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/pp.70.7.1197 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Atkins, J. E., Jacobs, R. A., & Knill, D. C. (2003) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(03)00470-x · Cited by 63 · see citing works
Indirect Tactual Discrimination of Heights by Blind and Blindfolded Sighted Subjects
Sunanto, J., & Nakata, H. (1998) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.2466/pms.1998.86.2.383 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Berkeley, G., & Turbayne, C. M. (1963) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Impairment of auditory spatial localization in congenitally blind human subjects
Gori, M., Sandini, G., Martinoli, C., & Burr, D. C. (2014) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awt311 · Cited by 252 · see citing works
Self-citationThe role of visual experience for the neural basis of spatial cognition
Pasqualotto, A., & Proulx, M. J. (2012) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.01.008 · Cited by 192 · see citing works
Fusion of visual cues is not mandatory in children
Nardini, M., Bedford, R., & Mareschal, D. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1001699107 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential1
Kristjánsson, Á., Moldoveanu, A., Jóhannesson, Ó. I., Balan, O., Spagnol, S., Valgeirsdóttir, V. V., & Unnthorsson, R. (2016) · Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience · doi:10.3233/rnn-160647 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
“…participants, suggesting that multisensory integration may differ in the congenitally blind, perhaps because they have better auditory discrimination abilities than sighted people or because vision plays a role in crossmodal calibra- tion (Gori et al., 2010; Occelli, Spence & Zampini, 2013).”
BackgroundNavigation using sensory substitution in real and virtual mazes
Chebat, D.-R., Maidenbaum, S., & Amedi, A. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126307 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
- Authors
- Gori, M., Sandini, G., Martinoli, C., & Burr, D.
- Affiliations
- Italian Institute of Technology (IT)
- Neuroscience Institute (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Gori, Monica
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-02
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 223-225
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2145236435
- Cited by
- 205
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 42 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 1262 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-037 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-012 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-029 (stm-asf)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- CINECA IRIS Institutial Research Information System (University of Genoa) (submittedVersion)
- INFM-OAR (INFN Catania) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (other-oa)
- Funders
- European Research Council
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- congenital visual impairment, multisensory integration, sensory dominance, haptic perception, children
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Age Factors, Blindness, Child, Child, Preschool, Discrimination, Psychological, Humans, Orientation, Perception, Psychometrics, Touch, Case-Control Studies, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
