Audio-visual multisensory integration and haptic perception are altered in adults with developmental coordination disorder

Abstract

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a movement disorder in which atypical sensory processing may underly movement atypicality. However, whether altered sensory processing is domain-specific or global in nature, are unanswered questions. Here, we measured for the first time, different aspects of sensory processing and spatiotemporal integration in the same cohort of adult participants with DCD (N = 16), possible DCD (pDCD, N = 12) and neurotypical adults (NT, N = 28). Haptic perception was reduced in both DCD and the extended DCD + pDCD groups when compared to NT adults. Audio-visual integration, measured using the sound-induced double flash illusion, was reduced only in DCD participants, and not the DCD + pDCD extended group. While low-level sensory processing was altered in DCD, the more cognitive, higher-level ability to infer temporal dimensions from spatial information, and vice-versa, as assessed with Tau-Kappa effects, was intact in DCD (and extended DCD + pDCD) participants. Both audio-visual integration and haptic perception difficulties correlated with the degree of self-reported DCD symptoms and were most apparent when comparing DCD and NT groups directly, instead of the expanded DCD + pDCD group. The association of sensory difficulties with DCD symptoms suggests that perceptual differences play a role in motor difficulties in DCD via an underlying internal modelling mechanism.