Visual Attention in Deaf Humans: A Neuroplasticity Perspective

Dye, Matthew W.G.; Bavelier, Daphné

doi:10.1007/2506_2013_9

Cited by 26 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Under either interpretation, the data suggest that early profound deafness may indeed alter temporal aspects of visual processing. As we have argued elsewhere (Dye & Bavelier, 2012), visual attention deficits in deaf children are larger in those who have delayed exposure to spoken language than in those with early exposure to a sign language. The auditory scaffolding hypothesis (Conway et al, 2009) proposes that both access to sound and exposure to spoken language contribute to the development of cognitive sequencing skills.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

“…Without a systematic mapping of performance at different presentation rates in the same sample, it is hard to draw firm conclusions. We have previously argued that apparent temporal deficits in deaf children may actually reflect differences in the default spatial allocation of selective attention (Dye & Bavelier, 2010, 2012; Dye & Hauser, 2014). In order to successfully process a rapid temporal stream of visual events co-occurring at the same spatial location, one must also spatially select that location in order to maximize the probability of target detection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is now well documented that early profound deafness results in changes in visual functions (Dye & Bavelier, 2012; Pavani & Bottari, 2012). Studies of deaf adults have demonstrated that they are better able than their hearing peers to detect and localize targets in their visual periphery (Buckley, Codina, Bhardwaj, & Pascalis, 2010; Dye, Hauser, & Bavelier, 2009; Loke & Song, 1991), and process visual motion (Armstrong, Neville, Hillyard, & Mitchell, 2002; Hauthal, Sandmann, Debener, & Thorne, 2013; Stevens & Neville, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also some evidence that deaf adults are better able to orient their visual attention in response to external cues (Bosworth & Dobkins, 2002; Bottari, Nava, Ley, & Pavani, 2010; Colmenero, Catena, Fuentes, & Ramos, 2004; Dye, Baril, & Bavelier, 2007; Parasnis & Samar, 1985). At the behavioral level, it has been proposed that these changes in visual functions reflect enhanced visual perception or enhancements in visual attention to the periphery and to motion (Dye & Bavelier, 2012; Pavani & Bottari, 2012). At the neural level, a number of potential mechanisms have been postulated to explain the changes in visual function, including a redistribution of retinal ganglion cells (Codina, Pascalis, et al, 2011), enhanced responsivity of early visual processing areas (Bottari, Caclin, Giard, & Pavani, 2011), changes in top-down connectivity within the dorsal visual pathway (Bavelier et al, 2000; Hauthal, Thorne, Debener, & Sandmann, 2013), and cross-modal recruitment of functionally homologous areas in auditory cortex (Lomber, Meredith, & Kral, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal entrainment of visual attention in children: Effects of age and deafness

Dye¹

2014

Vision Research

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The major documented effect of auditory deprivation on visual processing is enhanced spatial attention, in particular to the visual periphery and to moving stimuli. However, there is a parallel literature that has reported deficits in temporal aspects of visual processing in individuals with profound hearing losses. This study builds upon previous work showing possible deficits in processing of rapid serial visual presentation streams in deaf children [Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience (2010), 28, 181–192]. Deaf native signers of American Sign Language and hearing children and adults were asked to perform a 2-AFC identification task with a visual target embedded in a stream of visual stimuli presented at 6 Hz. Both children and adults displayed attentional awakening, whereby target identification accuracy improved as the number of stimuli preceding the target increased. For deaf children, however, this awakening effect was less pronounced than that observed in hearing children, interpreted as difficulty sustaining entrainment to the stimulus stream. The data provide the first account of attentional awakening in children, showing that it improves across the 6–13 year age range. They also provide additional support to the possibility of domain-general alterations in the processing of temporal information in the absence of auditory input.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temporal entrainment of visual attention in children: Effects of age and deafness

Dye¹

2014

Vision Research

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“…First, the vTOJ task used in this study, although short in duration (7 minutes), requires sustained visual attention. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that pre-lingually deafened individuals exhibit enhanced peripheral visual attention compared to individuals with normal-hearing (Loke & Song 1991; Bavelier et al 2000; Nava et al 2008; Dye & Bavelier 2012). In fact, Nava and colleagues (2008) demonstrated that deaf individuals respond significantly faster during the hardest vTOJ condition than do normal hearing controls when the visual targets are presented to the peripheral visual field.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Temporal Acuity Is Related to Auditory Speech Perception Abilities in Cochlear Implant Users

2017

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Objective Despite significant improvements in speech perception abilities following cochlear implantation, many pre-lingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) recipients continue to rely heavily on visual information to develop speech and language. Increased reliance on visual cues for understanding spoken language could lead to the development of unique audiovisual integration and visual-only processing abilities in these individuals. Brain imaging studies have demonstrated that good CI performers, as indexed by auditory-only speech perception abilities, have different patterns of visual cortex activation in response to visual and auditory stimuli as compared to poor CI performers. However, no studies have examined whether speech perception performance is related to any type of visual processing abilities following cochlear implantation. The purpose of the present study was to provide a preliminary examination of the relationship between clinical, auditory-only speech perception tests and visual temporal acuity in pre-lingually deafened adult CI users. It was hypothesized that pre-lingually deafened CI users who exhibit better (i.e., more acute) visual temporal processing abilities would demonstrate better auditory-only speech perception performance than those with poorer visual temporal acuity. Design Ten pre-lingually deafened adult CI users were recruited for this study. Participants completed a visual temporal order judgment (vTOJ) task to quantify visual temporal acuity. To assess auditory-only speech perception abilities, participants completed the consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC) word recognition test and the AzBio sentence recognition test. Results were analyzed using two-tailed partial Pearson correlations, Spearman’s rho correlations, and independent samples t-tests. Results Visual temporal acuity was significantly correlated with auditory-only word and sentence recognition abilities. Additionally, proficient CI users, as assessed via auditory-only speech perception performance, demonstrated significantly better visual temporal acuity than non-proficient CI users. Conclusions These findings provide the first behavioral evidence that visual temporal acuity is related to post-implantation CI proficiency as indexed by auditory-only speech perception performance. These preliminary data bring to light the possible future role of visual temporal acuity in predicting CI outcomes prior to implantation, as well as the possible utility of visual training methods in improving CI outcomes.

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The Importance of Intact Senses in Mating and Social Assessments Made by Deaf Individuals

2021

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Social perception is a multimodal process involving vision and audition as central input sources for human social cognitive processes. However, it remains unclear how profoundly deaf people assess others in the context of mating and social interaction. The current study explored the relative importance of different sensory modalities (vision, smell, and touch) in assessments of opposite- and same-sex strangers. We focused on potential sensory compensation processes in mate selection (i.e., increased importance of the intact senses in forming impressions of an opposite-sex stranger as a potential partner). A total of 74 deaf individuals and 100 normally hearing controls were included in the study sample. We found diminished importance of vision and smell in deaf participants compared with controls for opposite- and same-sex strangers, and increased importance of touch for the assessment of same-sex strangers. The results suggested that deaf people rely less on visual and olfactory cues in mating and social assessments, highlighting a possible role of sign language in shaping interpersonal tactile experience in non-romantic relationships.

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Visual Attention in Deaf Humans: A Neuroplasticity Perspective

Cited by 26 publications

References 67 publications

Temporal entrainment of visual attention in children: Effects of age and deafness

Temporal entrainment of visual attention in children: Effects of age and deafness

Visual Temporal Acuity Is Related to Auditory Speech Perception Abilities in Cochlear Implant Users

The Importance of Intact Senses in Mating and Social Assessments Made by Deaf Individuals

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