The Development of the Functional Dissociation of Perception and Action

Humans rely on their visual system to navigate and interact with the world, utilizing two functionally distinct cortical pathways: the ventral pathway, responsible for visual perception, and the dorsal pathway, which supports visuomotor actions. While the functional dissociation between these behaviours has been extensively studied in adults, its developmental trajectory and susceptibility to neurodevelopmental conditions is not as well-understood. This dissertation investigates the dissociation between perception and action in pediatric and adult populations with atypical neurodevelopment, focusing on three experimental studies. The first study examines a pediatric patient, TC, who underwent a unilateral cortical resection impacting both the dorsal and ventral pathways. Despite intact perceptual abilities, her visuomotor behaviors were markedly impaired, highlighting differential developmental trajectories of the two pathways and the dissociation between perception and action. The second study investigates children with amblyopia, a developmental visual disorder, and finds a reduced perception-action functional dissociation compared to neurotypical controls. This suggests that atypical visual experience disrupts the functional specialization of the pathways early in life. The final study focuses on adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and reveals reduced perception-action dissociation in two different contextual conditions. Together, these studies provide a detailed examination of how neurodevelopmental conditions influence the emergence of perceptual behaviors, visuomotor behaviours and the dissociation between these functions. These investigations confirm the sensitivity of visuomotor behaviours to atypical development and show that the dissociation between perceptual and visuomotor functions is disrupted under a range of neurodevelopmental conditions.

Author dc:creator

• Ahmad, Zoha

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Freud, Erez

• Behavioral sciences
• Developmental biology
• Neurosciences

Statement dc:rights

• Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42993

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/42993