# Intersensory Processing, Developmental Trajectories, and Longitudinal Outcomes

> **NIH NIH R01** · FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $561,147

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Attention is the gateway to all we perceive, learn and remember, and disorders of attention continue to be a
national public health concern. Although we live in a world of overlapping, dynamic, multimodal events, little is
known about the development of attention in the context of this complexity. Infants must learn to selectively
attend to unitary multimodal events (intersensory processing, IP) by detecting synchronous sights and sounds
(e.g., face and voice of a speaker) and to flexibly shift and maintain attention in the context of competing
stimulation. These basic skills, which we call “multisensory attention skills” (MASks), provide a cornerstone for
language and social development. However, there is no systematic database characterizing the early typical
development of these foundational MASks or the developmental pathways through which they lead to optimal
outcomes. A key obstacle to progress has been the lack of individual difference measures appropriate for
infants and children. To address these issues we have created the first individual difference protocols for
assessing MASks, and will use them here to build the first developmental database (across 3-72 mos), and to
model developmental pathways from MASks to critical child outcomes that rely on this foundation. Our
measures index IP, attention maintenance, and shifting in the context of overlapping audiovisual social and
nonsocial events at a grain of analysis needed for characterizing the proficiency of individual children,
developmental change, and risk for atypical development. In my current R01, we are collecting longitudinal
data for 107 infants across 3-36 mos using these protocols. Preliminary results show clear developmental
change and impressive relations with language and social outcomes. Here, we build on these findings by
testing: a) the same children at 48, 60, and 72 mos, b) a new cohort at 48, 60, and 72 mos, c) outcomes in two
new domains critical for successful childhood functioning—self-regulation/EF and school readiness, and d)
neural correlates of IP using ERPs. Using cutting-edge SEM-based growth curve and panel modeling, we will
model how infant MASks develop and cascade to these important domains in childhood. The specific aims of
this project are to characterize the typical longitudinal growth of MASks and define values signifying risk for
delays (Aim 1), test models characterizing pathways from MASks to language and social competence (Aim 2),
and to self-regulation/EF and school readiness (Aim 3). The larger sample at 48, 60, and 72 mos will enable us
to test hypothesized and alternative models of developmental pathways in greater detail, assess practice
effects and explore neural correlates of IP. Findings will advance theory and methodology by providing the first
tools, data, and knowledge base of developmental processes through which basic MASks impact important
outcomes in childhood. This has potential to catalyze a shift in the study of ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10610861
- **Project number:** 5R01HD053776-15
- **Recipient organization:** FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Lorraine E Bahrick
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $561,147
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2008-04-10 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10610861

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10610861, Intersensory Processing, Developmental Trajectories, and Longitudinal Outcomes (5R01HD053776-15). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10610861. Licensed CC0.

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