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 Correlates of Music Learning: This study examined how children, and adults (both vocalists and music novices), process music. Many music education techniques include a motor component to help individuals learn music. To investigate why an added motor component may be beneficial to learning, we explored how the motor system interacts with, and/or contributes to learning of sung melodies using fMRI. Results indicate that when adults (non-vocalists) learn with hand signs, they show subsequent activation in motor areas, and areas associated with the storage of semantic representations when listening to melodies learned with the motor component. Interestingly, in the same condition, children do not show activation in semantic representation areas, but show a wider network of engaged motor areas. Finally, our study with vocalists demonstrated how musical expertise can elicit very different ways of processing music -- vocalists showed activation in areas associated with advanced audiovocal processing when listening to motorically learned melodies, as well as the motor areas identified in non-vocalist adults.

Figure: Activation in adults' brains when they listen to sung melodies learned with a visuo-motor component, similar to Curwen hand signs (i.e., 1:1:1 correspondence between pitch, sung syllable, and hand signs). Learning melodies with a visuo-motor component causes these melodies to be processed differently than melodies learned without this component: motor areas and semantic representation areas show activation.

Figure: Activation in childrens' brains when they listen to sung melodies learned with a visuo-motor component. Like adults, children show a different way of processing melodies learned motorically, but they show reactivation in a larger motor network than adults.

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 examines the neural development of haptic and visual processing using fMRI. Children (4 to 5 1/2 years, 7 to 8 1/2 years) and adults explore objects and textures either visually or haptically, while their brain activations in response to the two types of stimuli and modalities are recorded. Examples of the data are shown in the following Statistical Parametric Maps (SPMs).
Figure. This image presents a contrast of objects versus textures. We can see bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS) activation for both 4 to 5 1/2 year olds (orange) and adults (purple). This region has been associated with a preference for the haptic modality.

Figure. This image contrasts visual objects and visual textures. There is overlapping lateral occipital complex (LOC) activation between the three group: 4 to 5 1/2 year olds (orange), 7 to 8 1/2 year olds (green), and adults (purple). This region has been well documented with a preference for objects.

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. We are still recruiting Pokemon expert children for this study.
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.
Musicians: One group of experts that we study are musicians, who have extensive visual and motor experience leading to their particular form of expertise. Currently, we are comparing musicians with non-musicians and other experts to see how musicians process syntactical information, temporal information, and visual information. We also go “within expert category” to tease apart musical processing in the brain that occurs for classical musicians versus jazz musicians.
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