ABSTRACT

Studies examining visual abilities in individuals with early auditory deprivation have reached mixed conclusions, with some finding congenital auditory deprivation and/or lifelong use of a visuospatial language improves specific visual skills and others failing to find substantial differences. A more consistent finding is enhanced peripheral vision and an increased ability to efficiently distribute attention to the visual periphery following auditory deprivation. However, the extent to which this applies to visual skills in general or to certain conspicuous stimuli, such as faces, in particular is unknown. We examined the perceptual resolution of peripheral vision in the deaf, testing various facial attributes typically associated with high-resolution scrutiny of foveal information processing. We compared performance in face-identification tasks to performance using non-face control stimuli. Although we found no enhanced perceptual representations in face identification, gender categorization, or eye gaze direction recognition tasks, fearful expressions showed greater resilience than happy or neutral ones to increasing eccentricities. In the absence of an alerting sound, the visual system of auditory deprived individuals may develop greater sensitivity to specific conspicuous stimuli as a compensatory mechanism. The results also suggest neural reorganization in the deaf in their opposite advantage of the right visual field in face identification tasks.

摘要

检验早期听觉剥夺者的视觉能力的研究得出了不同的结论，有些发现先天性听觉剥夺和/或终身使用视觉空间语言可以改善特定的视觉技能，而另一些则没有发现实质性差异。一个更一致的发现是增强了周围视觉，并增强了在听觉剥夺后将注意力有效分配到视觉周围的能力。然而，这在多大程度上适用于一般的视觉技能或特定的明显刺激，例如面部，尚不清楚。我们检查了聋人周围视觉的知觉分辨率，测试了通常与中心凹信息处理的高分辨率检查相关的各种面部属性。我们将面部识别任务的性能与使用非面部控制刺激的性能进行了比较。尽管我们在面部识别，性别分类或眼睛注视方向识别任务中没有发现增强的知觉表现，但是恐惧的表情比快乐或中立的表情表现出更大的弹性，而不是快乐的中性表情。在没有警报声的情况下，被剥夺的听觉个体的视觉系统可能会对特定的明显刺激作为一种补偿机制产生更大的敏感性。结果还表明，聋人的神经重组与人脸识别任务中的正确视野相反。或眼睛注视方向识别任务，恐惧的表情比快乐或中立的表情表现出更大的适应力，从而增加了偏心率。在没有警报声的情况下，被剥夺的听觉个体的视觉系统可能会对特定的明显刺激作为一种补偿机制产生更大的敏感性。结果还表明，聋人的神经重组与人脸识别任务中的正确视野相反。或注视方向识别任务，恐惧的表情比快乐或中立的表情表现出更大的适应力，从而增加了偏心率。在没有警报声的情况下，被剥夺的听觉个体的视觉系统可能会对特定的明显刺激作为一种补偿机制产生更大的敏感性。结果还表明，聋人的神经重组与人脸识别任务中的正确视野相反。