Effectiveness of Intervention for Improvement of Reading Ability by Combining Visual and Haptic Modality

Background: Multi modal approach of learning improves reading efficiency. The present study is an attempt to explore the combine effect of a visual-haptic modality to improve the efficiency of reading. A letter discrimination task was designed for the evaluation of reading ability. The experiment was performed on 12 healthy adult subjects. Methods: The experiment consisted of one frequent and two infrequent stimuli. Each stimulus was presented by visual, haptic, and, combinations of visual and haptic stimuli. The haptic stimulus was provided in two approaches i.e., motor vibration at different frequencies and motor vibration at different locations. The accuracy and speed of letter recognition using the visual display of stimulus were used as a baseline. The effectiveness of bimodal stimulus for better reading ability was evaluated using behavioral data and time-domain EEG analysis. Results: The behavioral analysis shows that the average response time to a stimulus was lesser in the case of a bimodal stimulus. The event-related potential (ERP) obtained during EEG analysis supports the results and shows that the bimodal stimulus provides early occurrence of P300 activity with a higher amplitude as compared to unimodal stimulus. Conclusions: Results revealed that combine effect of visual-haptic modality improves reading accuracy and speed.