Collaborative Research: Multisensory Perceptual Learning

加州大学洛杉矶分校的拉丹·沙姆斯加州大学河滨分校的亚伦·塞茨研究：多感官知觉研究在日常生活中，我们经常在不同的感官模式中体验到相关的感觉。例如，当我们爬上楼梯时，我们会感受到我们的听觉、视觉、触觉和前庭系统的感觉，这些都与爬楼梯的体验有关。这些类型的多感官体验是我们如何与周围世界互动和了解周围世界的关键方面。通过我们与世界的经验，我们的感官能力经历了改进，使我们能够在我们执行的任务中优化我们的表现。这些感官改进包括微调我们每个感官通道的处理过程，但同样重要的是，我们如何合并不同通道的信息。虽然许多研究都集中在学习如何在每个单独的感觉系统中进行，但对信息如何跨感觉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，他们可以并行跟踪视觉、听觉和听觉-视觉多感官学习，并区分不同的多感官处理和学习理论。行为和神经成像方法将结合起来，阐明不同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所起的作用。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，以在我们执行的任务中最佳地运行。这个项目将是对多感觉知觉学习的第一次系统调查。这也将是第一次对感官学习可能导致的大脑区域之间相互作用的变化进行研究。总之，这项研究承诺提供有关多感官学习的大脑机制以及一般学习机制的基础知识。理解多感官学习有助于开发更有效的学习策略。这些策略可用于加强一般发育的儿童和成人的学习，以及促进某种意义上的缺乏的个人(例如，低视力或低听力的人、植入人工耳蜗者或正在接受黄斑变性或白内障手术的人)的学习和交流。他们还可以为设计阅读障碍的补救计划做出贡献，阅读障碍似乎涉及到跨感官信息组合的缺陷。

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.