It has been hypothesized that crossmodal recalibration plays a crucial role for the development of multisensory integration capabilities [1]. To test the developmental trajectory of multisensory integration and crossmodal recalibration, we used a combined ventriloquist/ventriloquist aftereffect paradigm [2] in children aged 5-9 years. The ventriloquist effect (indicating multisensory integration), that is, the shift of auditory localization toward simultaneously presented but spatially discrepant visual stimuli, was larger in children than in adults, which was attributed to a lower auditory localization precision in the children. In fact, the size of the ventriloquist effect depended on the visual stimulus reliability in both children and adults. In all groups, the ventriloquist effect was best explained by a causal inference model. In contrast to their multisensory integration capabilities, 5-year-old children did not recalibrate. The immediate ventriloquist aftereffect (indicating recalibration after a single exposure to a spatially discrepant audio-visual stimulus) emerged in 6- to 7-year-old children, whereas the cumulative ventriloquist aftereffect (reflecting recalibration to the audio-visual spatial discrepancies over the complete experiment) was not observed before the age of 8 years. First, in contrast to common beliefs, the present results provide evidence that multisensory integration precedes rather than follows crossmodal recalibration during development. Second, we report developmental evidence for a dissociation of the processes involved in multisensory integration and immediate as well as cumulative recalibration. We speculate that multisensory integration is a prerequisite for crossmodal recalibration, because the multisensory percept, rather than unimodal cues, might comprise a crucial signal for the calibration of the sensory systems.

中文翻译：

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多感官整合在交叉模式重新校准之前发展。

据推测，跨模式重新校准对于多感官整合能力的发展起着至关重要的作用 [1]。为了测试多感觉整合和跨模式重新校准的发展轨迹，我们在 5-9 岁儿童中使用了组合的腹语/腹语后效范式 [2]。口技效应（表示多感觉统合），即听觉定位向同时呈现但空间上有差异的视觉刺激的转变，在儿童中比在成人中更大，这归因于儿童的听觉定位精度较低。事实上，口技效果的大小取决于儿童和成人的视觉刺激可靠性。在所有组中，口技效果最好用因果推理模型来解释。与他们的多感官整合能力相反，5 岁的孩子没有重新校准。6 到 7 岁的儿童出现了直接的口技后遗症（表示单次暴露于空间差异视听刺激后的重新校准），而累积的腹语后遗症（反映对整个视听空间差异的重新校准）。实验）在 8 岁之前没有被观察到。首先，与普遍看法相反，目前的结果提供证据表明，在开发过程中，多感官整合先于而不是跟随跨模式重新校准。其次，我们报告了涉及多感官整合和即时以及累积重新校准的过程分离的发展证据。