Abstract
The dorsal visual pathway extends from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe and generates object representations that promote different visual functions, including visually guided actions, shape recognition and spatial processing. In my talk, I will address two outstanding questions. First, how do dorsal pathway representations emerge throughout development? Second, how does the emergence of these representations modulate perception, action and the dissociation between these functions? To tackle these questions, we conducted a series of behavioral and neuroimaging investigations with typically developed children alongside individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders that affect their early visual experience (i.e., amblyopia) or cortical organization (i.e., cortical resections, ASD). Across the different studies, we find evidence that object representations in the dorsal pathway are not matured even in school-age children. Additionally, we show that visuomotor behaviors, associated with computations carried out by the dorsal pathway, are more susceptible to atypical development than perceptual behaviors. This greater susceptibility was also evident in terms of a reduced functional dissociation between perception and action in children with neurodevelopmental conditions. To conclude, our findings suggest that object representations derived by the dorsal pathway are subject to protracted development. This longer maturation rate might account for the susceptibility of these representations, and their associated behaviors, to neurodevelopmental disorders.