Research

Research:

Child Studies:
Research Studies in Developmental Psychology:
Development of Shape and Word Recognition: This series of studies examines the development of perception and how it is influenced by motor experience. In collaboration with Dr. Linda Smith and Dr. Susan Jones, we have recently embarked on new studies, which focus on how children look at objects and how their motor manipulations lead to the build up of object representations. {PDF, PDF}

Generalization of Object Orientation: This study follows-up on the shape bias phenomenon (Landau, Smith, Jones; 1988) exhibited by young children (2-3 years old) to explore whether they categorize objects based on overall shape or shape by certain orientations. Children were shown simple objects that were labeled with novel names. Then, they were asked to pick other objects that were also labeled with the same novel name. The pairs of objects presented in front of the children consisted of one object that matched the exemplar by shape but not orientation and another object that matched by orientation but not shape. Young children prefer to label the object of the same orientation as belonging to the same category as the exemplar. Older children and adults, on the other hand, consistently preferred to pick the object of the same shape. Thus, there seems to be a developmental difference in the way objects are categorized, and picking objects by shape may be orientation specific.

A child completing the task:

Example Stimuli:

Objects from a child’s perspective (wearing a head camera):

Research Studies in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience:
Developmental Neuroimaging Project: We are interested in studying how children’s brains change with experience. We are one of the few labs in the world that studies the neural correlates of learning in 4-8 year olds. We have a high success rate in the acquisition of usable data from these sometimes ‘active’ subjects.
DNP Experiments:
The Development of Neural Specialization for Letters: Cortical functional specialization has been considered to be integral to efficient neural processing. In this study we were interested in the type of learning that is required for functional specialization to develop for letters in pre-school children. We used fMRI to compare brain activation before and after different letter-learning conditions. A sensori-motor group practiced printing letters during the learning phase, while the control group practiced visual recognition. Results revealed that overall left-hemisphere bias for processing letters in these preliterate participants but more interestingly, showed enhanced activation in the visual association cortex during letter perception only after sensori-motor experience (printing letters; see picture below). It is concluded that sensori-motor experience augments processing in the visual system of pre-school children. The change of activation in these neural circuits provides important evidence that “learning-by-doing” can lay the foundation for, and potentially strengthen, the neural systems used for letter recognition.
Click HERE for pdf of full article
Click HERE for link to feature in the WallStreet Journal

Tracking Special Words: Using age-appropriate word lists, we can focus on children’s reading ability in order to determine specific points of neural specialization. Our fMRI technology is used in conjunction with standardized reading assessments in order to help us pinpoint developmental changes due to brain activation in children from Kindergarten to 2nd grade.
Verb and Motor Mapping: This study was completed in collaboration with Dr. Josita Maouene. Using fMRI, in this study we examined activation related to specific words - more specifically, activation associated with verbs. See: James, K.H., & Mauoene, J. (2009) {PDF}
Verb and Motor Mapping 2: In this study children performed specific actions on objects, and each action was associated with a novel verb name. In addition, they watched someone else act on other objects. Then, using fMRI we assessed neural patterns associated with the objects and verbs when children interact with objects vs. when they only watch. Our next step is to examine neural patterns associated with the sounds the objects make and neural patterns associated with seeing the objects being acted on. {PDF}

Example Stimuli:

Neural Correlates of Imitation: This study was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Susan Jones. The focus of this research was to examine neural changes that occur in adults and children when they imitate hand movements and also when they observe themselves being imitated.
The imitation set-up:

The experimenter makes hand movements on this apparatus and that is displayed to the participant in the MRI. The experimenter can also see the participants hand movements with this apparatus.
Example of the data: Below is a statistical parametric map (SPM) doing imitation vs fixation. From this contrast it shows the whole network of imitation. We can see bilateral interparietal sulcus, left precentral, frontal operculum (Broca’s area), right middle temporal and bilateral postcentral and superior temporal sulci (STS).

Exploration of Imitation using Transitive Action: This study is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Susan Jones. This experiment involves observations and productions of reaching and grasping an object and imitation of these same actions. In the scanner, children will be asked to simply watch the researcher moving an object around a grasping device (observation). They will also be asked to move objects around the device themselves (production). Then, the researcher will move an object that is placed on our grasping apparatus and children will be asked to imitate the same action. In a different condition, children will be asked to move the object first and then the researcher will imitate their actions. We will measure neural activation associated with imitation with transitive actions (e.g. any action that involves object). Also, we will examine the neural activation associated with observations and productions of transitive actions and how they are different.
Mapping the Motor Cortex: In this study we were mapping the motor cortex of 5 year old children. To our knowledge, this was the first systematic mapping of motor cortex in normal children of this age. They were asked to move the right and left index finger, feet, and fists, separately and simultaneously. They were also asked to perform facial movements.

Neural Mechanisms underlying Gesture Processing: Gestures are spontaneous movements we make with our hands while speaking, are used across cultures, and have been shown to be beneficial for communication. In this study, we are investigating how the neural mechanisms of processing perceived gestures change across development. Three groups of children (5.0-6.0, 7.5-8.5, 10.0-11.0 years) and a group of adults were shown videos in which sentences were presented with gesture, by themselves, with random movements, or the gestures were presented in isolation during an fMRI session. We are continuing to analyze the results, but have already shown that gesture is processed very differently across age groups, which may have implications for why children benefit more from gesture use than adults.

Figure: Activation to iconic gestures in the brains of children (5.0-6.0, 7.5-8.5, 10.0-11.0 years) and adults. Whereas all age groups show activation bilaterally in the middle temporal gyrus, an area associated with storing semantic representations related to movement, adults show additional regions (premotor, IPL, bilateral visual cortices).

Neural Correlates of Haptic Processing: This study examined the neural development of haptic and visual processing using fMRI. Children (4-5.5 years and 7-8.5 years) and adults explored objects and textures either visually or haptically, while their brain activations in response to the two types of stimuli and modalities were recorded. Results indicate extensive overlap between the adults and the two groups of children for the processing of multisensory shape information. This demonstrates that the two main sites of convergence for visual and haptic inputs in adults are active in children as well. These are the lateral occipital complex (LOC), an area that has been well documented to show a preference for objects, and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), as area associated with object-direct motor actions.
Figure. This image presents a Statistical Parametric Map (SPM) of multisensory shape-selectivity in two groups of children (4-5.5 years and 7-8.5 years) and in adults. We can see bilateral overlapping activation in LOC, and in regions of the IPS. There is also lateralized activity in the fusiform gyrus in the younger children.

Neural Correlates of Object Expertise: In this study we are assessing expertise in a group of 7-12 year old children who professed an unusually intense interest in Pokemon cards and games. Preliminary results show that Pokemon expert children show significantly greater activation in the fusiform gyrus, bilaterally, with Pokemon characters than with faces or scrambled stimuli. This has not been found in the non-expert children (control group). These preliminary findings suggest that the fusiform gyrus is part of a domain-general system for processing objects of expertise that is not specific to human faces.
Neural Mechanisms underlying Number Perception: This study is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Linda Smith. In this study we are examining the relationship between number writing and the differentiation of neural responses during number, letter, and word perception in 5 year old children at different stages in the acquisition of number writing.
Dorsal Stream Function in Young Children: In this set of studies, children between the ages of 4 and 8 were cued to make a visually-guided action (reach, grasp, or post) either with their eyes open or with their eyes closed, or to look at the apparatus and/or objects upon which they were acting. We measured BOLD response to these different tasks in order to determine how the dorsal stream, typically thought to be delayed in development compared to the ventral stream, develops.

Development of Networks for Processing Cursive Letters: School districts across America are changing the rules so that cursive is no longer required to be taught. Although cursive letters carry the same information as printed letters, the two differ in visual properties. This study aims to determine how motor experience with cursive letters (writing) affects the development of neural networks for cursive letters. Children are taught eight cursive letters actively (the children write the letters) and eight cursive letters passively (the children watch a researcher write the letters). BOLD response to actively learned cursive letters, passively learned cursive letters, unlearned cursive letters, scrambled cursive letters, printed letters, and shapes is measured using fMRI. In addition to right-handed children, a small group of left-handed children will be recruited to get an idea of how left-handed children process letters compared to the right-handed children.
Adult Studies:
Action-Perception Interaction: Although we are predominantly visual animals, we often learn about the world through our physical interactions. These interactions involve the motor system, whether it is through direct manipulation (“active processing”), watching others interact (“passive processing”), through our own ambulatory movements, or the movements of others. The experience that we gain with objects through our motor interactions is not lost upon cessation of the task, but may be used when we subsequently encounter objects. Presently, all we know is that motor programs are activated when we see objects that are typically learned through motor experience.
We have been investigating the extent to which motor experience effects visual recognition of 3D objects (tool-like objects) and of letters. We currently study these questions using behavioral measures such as effects on psychophysical thresholds, and effects of dual-task interference on reaction times and accuracy during recognition; as well as using fMRI to look at just what is going on in the brain when we recognize objects and letters. Previous work has shown that ‘active learning’, self-generated manipulation of 3D objects during a study session, leads to better recognition in a subsequent visual recognition task than watching the object movement generated by other subjects. Preliminary fMRI results have shown that after this active learning, areas of the supplementary motor region are more active during the visual recognition when compared to the more passive learning. Such results emphasize that motor experience is stored and re-activated upon subsequent presentation of the learned objects. In addition, watching movement produced by others does not activate these same regions, a result that brings into question recent assertions of a ‘mirror neuron’ system that is activated to the same degree as self-produced movement.
Active versus Passive Learning of Audiovisual Associations: In this study novel 3D stimuli were associated with novel sounds. Learning was either active (a goal-directed motor movement of the object produced a sound) or passive (subjects simply viewed those same movements performed by the experimenter).

Example Stimuli:

A pressure sensitive apparatus that triggers novel auditory stimuli was used to allow for active learning:

Apparatus:

We found that active learning significantly speeded both unisensory and multisensory associative recognition, and increased the accuracy of multisensory associative recognition. There were also associated differences in fMRI activation that reflect the impact of active motor learning. For example, the below fMRI images demonstrate greater activation in motor regions during the presentation of learned audiovisual stimuli pairs for those who learned actively compared to passively. {PDF}

Perceptual Expertise: can be thought of as an extreme form of perceptual learning. However, it seems that with experience that leads to perceptual expertise, processing of visual information may be very different than experience that does not lead to expertise. In the cognition and action lab, we are interested in how people learn and the effect that motor experience may have on learning. Some experts may have more multi-modal experience with objects than others, some experts may be purely visual in nature, while some forms may recruit other systems during processing.
Creating the expert: To investigate how expertise develops, we also train subjects to recognize letter-like stimuli (false fonts) until they are extremely efficient, then we look at how their brain activations change over training period. We train using visual/motor and auditory input. We have found that training that incorporates motor interaction will lead to more efficient visual recognition (see Vision Sciences Society presentation, 2006), we are now seeing how differential training effects brain activations. Results have shown that after experience writing false fonts (letter-like stimuli), brain activation to false fonts is higher in the left fusiform gyrus compared with seeing false fonts that were not written. In addition, this activation only occurred after writing experience; it was not present after either the typing or the visual only experiences. {PDF}

The Cognition and Action Neuroimaging Laboratory

Dept. Psychological and Brain Sciences

Indiana University

1101 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN, 47405

Ph: (812) 856-7237

Email: canlab1@indiana.edu

The Developmental Neuroimaging Project

DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROIMAGING PROJECT

MEDIA & COMMUNITY OUTREACH