Chapter 17 - Neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders affecting multisensory processes

Abstract

Multisensory processing changes over the course of both typical and atypical human development. The complex behavioral profiles seen in clinical groups with altered development, such as autism and schizophrenia, may in part reflect differences in sensory processing. Both groups exhibit social deficits that unfold with a characteristic developmental course, alongside other symptoms. Current research converges on the presence of multisensory processing deficits that, in both groups, may become more pronounced as stimuli become more complex. Often impaired multisensory processing accompanies intact unisensory processing. In the auditory and visual domains, these deficits are linked to deficits in verbal communication, while integration between these senses and more proximal somatic senses (touch, proprioception, interoception) may be important for more nonverbal social-communicative development such as self–other distinction and perspective-taking. Animal models of both disorders also provide evidence for deficits in multisensory integration in the physiology of integrative cortex and performance on behavioral tasks of multisensory processing. Effective, neuroscience-informed behavioral treatments for both groups are still lacking and none address the growing consensus that higher-order symptoms cascade from more basic perceptual differences that play out over the course of development. Multisensory behavioral neuroscience has an important role to play in addressing this translational challenge: to sustain and expand rigorous multidisciplinary investigation of sensory integration by incorporating basic science, human perception, developmental, and clinical perspectives to understand and impact the role of altered multisensory integration in these disorders.