Multisensory development in children with typical and atypical sensory processing

Research over recent decades has shown that multisensory integration does not emerge fully formed at birth but develops gradually from infancy through adolescence. Children progressively learn when to bind or segregate signals from different senses, how to resolve sensory conflicts, and how to exploit redundant cues to enhance the speed and accuracy of perception and action. This developmental trajectory can be profoundly shaped by the quantity, quality, and reliability of sensory input. In conditions such as blindness or deafness, or in neurodevelopmental disorders like Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), atypical sensory experiences and altered neural processing may lead to differences in spatial and temporal sensory integration, cross-modal reweighting, and inter-sensory calibration. Understanding these mechanisms and the associated neural networks is crucial for explaining variability in outcomes, from language and motor skills to social interaction and academic achievement.

Multisensory integration is crucial for building a coherent representation of the environment, supporting perception, attention, learning, and goal-directed behavior during childhood. In typical development, the ability to flexibly combine and segregate information across sensory modalities (e.g., vision, audition, touch, proprioception) emerges over an extended time course, shaped by both maturation and experience-dependent plasticity. However, many children experience atypical sensory processing due to congenital or acquired sensory loss (e.g., blindness, deafness) or neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., ADHD, ASD), where alterations in sensory encoding, cross-modal binding, or sensory weighting can profoundly impact development.

This Research Topic aims to advance our understanding of multisensory development across both typical and atypical trajectories, and to identify how specific sensory processing differences shape cognition, behavior, everyday functioning, and neural networks. By integrating developmental cognitive neuroscience, clinical studies, and computational modeling, this collection seeks to clarify converging and diverging pathways of multisensory development, highlight sensitive periods and plasticity mechanisms, and inform assessment and intervention strategies to better support children with diverse sensory profiles.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions examining multisensory development at both neural and behavioral levels in typical and atypical childhood (e.g., blindness, deafness, ADHD, ASD). We prioritize studies using behavioral paradigms, neurophysiological methods (EEG, MEG, fMRI, fNIRS), neuromodulation techniques (TMS/tDCS), and computational models to characterize multisensory integration, cross-modal calibration, temporal processing, and sensory reweighting across development. Clinical work on early biomarkers, interventions (e.g., sensory training, technology aids), and rehabilitation is also encouraged. Conceptual and review papers that refine theoretical frameworks for multisensory development or underlying mechanisms are also suitable.