title: Age-related differences in audiovisual interactions of semantically different stimuli.
abstract: Converging results have shown that adults benefit from congruent multisensory stimulation in the identification of complex stimuli, whereas the developmental trajectory of the ability to integrate multisensory inputs in children is less well understood. In this study we explored the effects of audiovisual semantic congruency on identification of visually presented stimuli belonging to different categories, using a cross-modal approach. Four groups of children ranging in age from 6 to 13 years and adults were administered an object identification task of visually presented pictures belonging to living and nonliving entities. Stimuli were presented in visual, congruent audiovisual, incongruent audiovisual, and noise conditions. Results showed that children under 12 years of age did not benefit from multisensory presentation in speeding up the identification. In children the incoherent audiovisual condition had an interfering effect, especially for the identification of living things. These data suggest that the facilitating effect of the audiovisual interaction into semantic factors undergoes developmental changes and the consolidation of adult-like processing of multisensory stimuli begins in late childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research, and Child Health, University of Florence.
authors.forename: Maria Pia
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Viggiano
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research, and Child Health, University of Florence.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giovannelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research, and Child Health, University of Florence.
authors.forename: Fiorenza
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giganti
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research, and Child Health, University of Florence.
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: A. Meyer Children's Hospital-University of Florence.
authors.forename: Tiziana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Metitieri
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire ICONES EA 4699, Université de Rouen.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rebai
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research, and Child Health, University of Florence.
authors.forename: Renzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guerrini
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neurology, Florence Health Authority.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cincotta
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult