Collaborative Research: Multisensory Perceptual Learning

Ladan Shams，加州大学洛杉矶分校Aaron Seitz，加州大学河滨分校合作研究：多感官知觉学习摘要在日常生活中，我们经常会经历不同感官模式之间的相关感觉。例如，当我们爬上楼梯时，我们的听觉、视觉、触觉和前庭系统都会接收到与爬楼梯有关的感觉。这些类型的多感官体验是我们如何与我们周围的世界互动和学习的关键方面。通过我们对世界的体验，我们的感官能力得到了改善，使我们能够优化我们在执行任务时的表现。这些感觉的改进涉及到我们每一种感觉方式中的加工微调，但同样重要的是，我们如何在不同的感觉方式中融合信息。虽然许多研究都集中在学习如何在每个单独的感官系统中发生，但信息如何在感官中组合的学习在很大程度上被忽视了。PI将进行一系列实验，在这些实验中，他们可以平行跟踪视觉、听觉和视觉-视觉多感觉学习，并区分多感觉处理和学习的不同理论。行为和神经影像学方法将结合起来，阐明不同的大脑区域，以及大脑区域之间的相互作用，在多感官学习过程中发挥的作用。总之，这些研究将为我们的感觉系统如何协同工作提供基本的见解，并改进它们的相互作用，以最好地在我们执行的任务中运作。这也将是第一个研究大脑区域之间的相互作用的变化，可能是感官学习的结果。总之，这项研究有望提供有关多感觉学习的大脑机制以及一般学习机制的基础知识。了解多感官学习有助于开发更有效的学习策略。这些策略可用于增强典型发育的儿童和成人的学习，以及促进在某种意义上被剥夺的个人的学习和沟通（例如，低视力或低听力的个体、植入人工耳蜗的患者或经历黄斑变性或白内障手术的患者）。他们还可以为设计诵读困难症的补救方案做出贡献，诵读困难症似乎涉及到跨感官组合信息的缺陷。

Ladan Shams, University of California at Los AngelesAaron Seitz, University of California at RiversideCOLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: MULTISENSORY PERCEPTUAL LEARNINGABSTRACTIn daily life, we frequently experience correlated sensations across our different sensory modalities. For example, as we climb up the stairs, we receive sensations to our auditory, visual, tactile, and vestibular systems that are all related to the experience of stair-climbing. These types of multisensory experiences are a key aspect of how we interact with, and learn about, the world around us. Through our experience with the world, our sensory abilities undergo refinements that allow us to optimize our performance in the tasks that we perform. These sensory refinements involve fine-tuning of processing in each of our sensory modalities, but equally importantly, in how we merge information across modalities. While much research has focused on how learning can take place within each individual sensory system, the learning of how information is combined across the senses has been largely neglected. The PIs will conduct a series of experiments in which they can track visual, auditory, and auditory-visual multisensory learning in parallel, and discriminate among different theories of multisensory processing and learning. Behavioral and neuroimaging methods will be combined to shed light on the roles that different brain areas, and the interactions between brain areas, play in the process of multisensory learning. Altogether these studies will provide fundamental insights into how our sensory systems work together and refine their interactions to best operate in the tasks that we perform.This project will be the first systematic investigation of multisensory perceptual learning. It will also be the first study of changes in interaction between brain areas that may occur as a result of sensory learning. Altogether, this study promises to provide foundational knowledge regarding the brain mechanisms involved in multisensory learning as well as the mechanisms of learning in general. Understanding multisensory learning can contribute to the development of more effective strategies for learning. These strategies can be utilized to enhance learning for typically-developed children and adults, as well as to facilitate learning and communication for individuals with deprivation in one sense (e.g., individuals with low-vision or low-hearing, patients with cochlear implants or undergoing macular degeneration or cataract surgeries). They can also contribute to devising remedial programs for dyslexia, which appears to involve deficits in combining information across the senses.