Blindness caused by early vision loss results in complete visual deprivation and subsequent changes in the use of the remaining intact senses. We have also observed adaptive plasticity in the case of partial visual deprivation. The removal of one eye, through unilateral eye enucleation, results in partial visual deprivation and is a unique model for examining the consequences of the loss of binocularity. Partial deprivation of the visual system from the loss of one eye early in life results in behavioral and structural changes in the remaining senses, namely auditory and audiovisual systems. In the current study we use functional neuroimaging data to relate function and behavior of the audiovisual system in this rare patient group compared to controls viewing binocularly or with one eye patched. In Experiment 1, a whole brain analysis compared common regions of cortical activation between groups, for auditory, visual and audiovisual stimuli. People with one eye demonstrated a trend for increased activation for low-level audiovisual stimuli compared to patched viewing controls but did not differ from binocular viewing controls. In Experiment 2, a region of interest (ROI) analysis for auditory, visual, audiovisual and illusory McGurk stimuli revealed that people with one eye had an increased trend for left hemisphere audiovisual activation for McGurk stimuli compared to binocular viewing controls. This aligns with current behavioral analysis and previous research showing reduced McGurk Effect in people with one eye. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a correlation between behavioral performance on the McGurk Effect task and functional activation. Together with previous behavioral work, these functional data contribute to the broader understanding of cross-sensory effects of early sensory deprivation from eye enucleation. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of the sensory deficits experienced by people with one eye, as well as, the relationship between behavior, structure and function in order to better predict the outcome of early partial visual deafferentation.

中文翻译：

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与双眼和眼罩观看控制相比，单眼人的视听信息的大脑激活

由早期视力丧失引起的失明会导致完全的视力丧失和随后对剩余完整感官的使用发生变化。我们还观察到部分视觉剥夺的适应性可塑性。通过单侧眼球摘除术去除一只眼睛会导致部分视觉剥夺，并且是检查双眼丧失后果的独特模型。生命早期因失去一只眼睛而部分剥夺视觉系统会导致其余感官（即听觉和视听系统）的行为和结构发生变化。在当前的研究中，我们使用功能性神经影像数据来关联这个罕见患者组的视听系统的功能和行为，与双目或一只眼罩观察的对照组相比。在实验 1 中，一项全脑分析比较了各组之间皮层激活的常见区域，用于听觉、视觉和视听刺激。与修补观看控制相比，单眼观看者表现出对低水平视听刺激的激活增加的趋势，但与双眼观看控制没有区别。在实验 2 中，对听觉、视觉、视听和幻觉 McGurk 刺激的感兴趣区域 (ROI) 分析显示，与双目观察对照相比，单眼人对 McGurk 刺激的左半球视听激活趋势增加。这与当前的行为分析和先前的研究一致，表明单眼人的麦格克效应减弱。此外，没有证据表明麦格克效应任务的行为表现与功能激活之间存在相关性。连同以前的行为工作，这些功能数据有助于更广泛地了解早期感觉剥夺对眼球摘除术的交叉感觉影响。总体而言，这些结果有助于更好地了解单眼人所经历的感觉缺陷，以及行为、结构和功能之间的关系，以便更好地预测早期部分视觉传入障碍的结果。