The development of attentional control mechanisms in multisensory environments

Attentional control outside of the laboratory operates in multisensory settings, but the development of mechanisms subserving such control remains poorly understood. We investigated when, over the course of childhood, adult-like attentional control mechanisms begin to emerge. Children aged five, seven, and nine were compared with adults on behavioural performance in a computer game-like multisensory spatial cueing task, while simultaneous 129-channel EEG was recorded. Markers of attentional control were behavioural spatial cueing effects and the N2pc ERP component (analysed both traditionally and using a novel, multivariate electrical neuroimaging framework). In behaviour, adult-like visual attentional control was present from age 7 onwards, whereas multisensory control was not seen in children. In EEG, multivariate analyses of the activity over the N2pc time-window, revealed stable patterns of brain activity in children. Adult activity patterns linked to visual attentional control were present age 7 onwards, mirroring behaviour. Activity patterns linked to multisensory control were found in 9-year-olds, even though such patterns were not noted in behaviour. By combining rigorous yet naturalistic paradigms with multivariate signal analyses, we provided new insights into the development of visual attentional control skills vis-a-vis multisensory attentional control, thus generating a more complete account of attentional development.