Development of higher visual-cognitive abilities up to the school age 

The detection of pattern and motion is a striking example of cognition-influenced perception. Motion information, following initial, local, directional analysis in area V1, undergoes higher-level processing, such as the analysis of optic flow for self motion, the analysis of 3-dimensional structure from motion, and the recognition of characteristic patterns of biological motion. These processes may involve integration with other kinds of information: biological motion processing must interact with shape-based information for the recognition of human body parts, and thus, participates in the integration of processing by the ventral stream. Tasks involving these different motion-based discriminations are known to activate distinct specialized brain areas in adults. Whether they do so in children is unknown. Previous approaches in developmental and diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of young children have focused on structural brain development as a fundament for cognition. The aims of this project are:

• to investigate the relationship between cognitive development and neuronal mechanisms of visual perception using fMRI.
• to create a normative database in order to allow comparison of clinical data from children with developmental disorders.
• to investigate visual development in very low birth weight born adolescents

Exemplary task “Structures-from-motion” perception: 5-6 year-old children (green) and adults (red) engage a different neural activation pattern during perception of 3D-structures that are emerging from moving dots.

Collaborations

Prof. Janette Atkinson and Prof. Oliver Braddick, Visual Development Unit, Dept. of Psychology, University College London and University of Oxford

PD Dr. Bea Latal and PD Dr. Oskar Jenni, Child Development Center, Children’s University Hospital, Zurich.

Contact

Dr. rer. nat. Peter Klaver
Peter.Klaver kispi.uzh.ch

Former collaborators

Dr. phil. Janine Lichtensteiger

Funding Source

Swiss National Foundation (Project Nr. SNF 3200 B0-109983)
EMDO Foundation 
Hartmann-Müller Foundation

Project duration

Nov 2005 – 2009

Publications

Loenneker T*, Klaver P*, Bucher K, Lichtensteiger J, Imfeld A, Martin E. Microstructural development: organisational differences of the fibre architecture between children and adults in dorsal and ventral visual streams. (submitted)

Lichtensteiger J, Loenneker T, Bucher K, Martin E, Klaver P (2008). The role of dorsal and ventral stream development in biological motion perception. NeuroReport, 19(18): 1763-1767.

Klaver P, Lichtensteiger J, Bucher K, Dietrich T, Loenneker T, Martin E (2008). Dorsal stream development in motion and structure-from-motion perception. Neuroimage, 39(4): 1815-1823.