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Goicke S, Denk F, Jürgens T. Auditory Spatial Bisection of Blind and Normally Sighted Individuals in Free Field and Virtual Acoustics. Trends Hear 2024; 28:23312165241230947. [PMID: 38361245 PMCID: PMC10874137 DOI: 10.1177/23312165241230947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 02/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Sound localization is an important ability in everyday life. This study investigates the influence of vision and presentation mode on auditory spatial bisection performance. Subjects were asked to identify the smaller perceived distance between three consecutive stimuli that were either presented via loudspeakers (free field) or via headphones after convolution with generic head-related impulse responses (binaural reproduction). Thirteen azimuthal sound incidence angles on a circular arc segment of ±24° at a radius of 3 m were included in three regions of space (front, rear, and laterally left). Twenty normally sighted (measured both sighted and blindfolded) and eight blind persons participated. Results showed no significant differences with respect to visual condition, but strong effects of sound direction and presentation mode. Psychometric functions were steepest in frontal space and indicated median spatial bisection thresholds of 11°-14°. Thresholds increased significantly in rear (11°-17°) and laterally left (20°-28°) space in free field. Individual pinna and torso cues, as available only in free field presentation, improved the performance of all participants compared to binaural reproduction. Especially in rear space, auditory spatial bisection thresholds were three to four times higher (i.e., poorer) using binaural reproduction than in free field. The results underline the importance of individual auditory spatial cues for spatial bisection, irrespective of access to vision, which indicates that vision may not be strictly necessary to calibrate allocentric spatial hearing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefanie Goicke
- Institute of Acoustics, Technische Hochschule Lübeck (University of Applied Sciences Lübeck), Lübeck, Germany
- Research Unit for ORL—Head & Neck Surgery and Audiology, Odense University Hospital & University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Florian Denk
- German Institute of Hearing Aids, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Tim Jürgens
- Institute of Acoustics, Technische Hochschule Lübeck (University of Applied Sciences Lübeck), Lübeck, Germany
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Xiong YZ, Addleman DA, Nguyen NA, Nelson P, Legge GE. Dual Sensory Impairment: Impact of Central Vision Loss and Hearing Loss on Visual and Auditory Localization. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2023; 64:23. [PMID: 37703039 PMCID: PMC10503591 DOI: 10.1167/iovs.64.12.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 09/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose In the United States, AMD is a leading cause of low vision that leads to central vision loss and has a high co-occurrence with hearing loss. The impact of central vision loss on the daily functioning of older individuals cannot be fully addressed without considering their hearing status. We investigated the impact of combined central vision loss and hearing loss on spatial localization, an ability critical for social interactions and navigation. Methods Sixteen older adults with central vision loss primarily due to AMD, with or without co-occurring hearing loss, completed a spatial perimetry task in which they verbally reported the directions of visual or auditory targets. Auditory testing was done with eyes open in a dimly lit room or with a blindfold. Twenty-three normally sighted, age-matched, and hearing-matched control subjects also completed the task. Results Subjects with central vision loss missed visual targets more often. They showed increased deviations in visual biases from control subjects as the scotoma size increased. However, these deficits did not generalize to sound localization. As hearing loss became more severe, the sound localization variability increased, and this relationship was not altered by coexisting central vision loss. For both control and central vision loss subjects, sound localization was less reliable when subjects wore blindfolds, possibly due to the absence of visual contextual cues. Conclusions Although central vision loss impairs visual localization, it does not impair sound localization and does not prevent vision from providing useful contextual cues for sound localization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying-Zi Xiong
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Lions Vision Research and Rehabilitation Center, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
| | - Douglas A. Addleman
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States
| | - Nam Anh Nguyen
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
| | - Peggy Nelson
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
| | - Gordon E. Legge
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
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Koehler H, Croy I, Oleszkiewicz A. Late Blindness and Deafness are Associated with Decreased Tactile Sensitivity, But Early Blindness is Not. Neuroscience 2023; 526:164-174. [PMID: 37385331 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2023.06.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 06/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/01/2023]
Abstract
Perceptual experience is shaped by a complex interaction between our sensory systems in which each sense conveys information on specific properties of our surroundings. This multisensory processing of complementary information improves the accuracy of our perceptual judgments and leads to more precise and faster reactions. Sensory impairment or loss in one modality leads to information deficiency that can impact other senses in various ways. For early auditory or visual loss, impairment and/or compensatory increase of the sensitivity of other senses are equally well described. Investigating individuals with deafness (N = 73), early (N = 51), late blindness (N = 49) and corresponding controls, we compared tactile sensitivity using the standard monofilament test on two locations, the finger and handback. Results indicate lower tactile sensitivity in people with deafness and late blindness but not in people with early blindness compared to respective controls, irrespective of stimulation location, gender, and age. Results indicate that neither sensory compensation nor simple use-dependency or a hindered development of the tactile sensory system is sufficient to explain changes in somatosensation after the sensory loss but that a complex interaction of effects is present.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanna Koehler
- Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Am Klinikum 1, 07747 Jena, Germany; Biomagnetic Center, Jena University Hospital, Am Klinikum 1, 07747 Jena, Germany; Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Fürstengraben 1, 07743 Jena, Germany.
| | - Ilona Croy
- Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Fürstengraben 1, 07743 Jena, Germany; Department of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
| | - Anna Oleszkiewicz
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Smell and Taste Clinic, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstrasse 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany; Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, ul. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wroclaw, Poland
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4
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Carretti G, Bianco R, Sgambati E, Manetti M, Marini M. Reactive Agility and Pitching Performance Improvement in Visually Impaired Competitive Italian Baseball Players: An Innovative Training and Evaluation Proposal. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:6166. [PMID: 37372753 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20126166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2023] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/16/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023]
Abstract
Visual input significantly affects kinesthesis skills and, hence, visually impaired individuals show less developed sensorimotor control, especially in an unfamiliar outdoor environment. Regular blind baseball practice can counteract such a deficit but, given the complex kinetic chain model required, a targeted workout proposal is needed to improve the main athletic gesture performance. On these premises, we investigated, for the first time, the running and pitching performance of a competitive Italian blind baseball team through quantitative tools and parameters such as Libra Easytech sensorized proprioceptive board, goniometric active range of motion, chronometric speed, and pitching linear length. Moreover, the perceived physical exertion was assessed by the Borg CR10 scale. Consequently, an adapted athletic training protocol was designed and tested on the field during the competitive season, with the aim to strengthen sport specific-gesture coordination and efficacy as well as to prevent injuries. Quantitative assessments showed an improvement in ankle stability index, bilateral upper limb and hip mobility, reactive agility, running braking phase control during second base approaching, and auditory target-related pitching accuracy along with a decrease in perceived physical exertion. This protocol might therefore represent an effective and easily reproducible training and evaluation approach to tailor management of visually impaired baseball players, and safely improve their athletic performance under the supervision of an adapted exercise specialist.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giuditta Carretti
- Section of Anatomy and Histology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
| | - Raffaele Bianco
- Section of Anatomy and Histology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
| | - Eleonora Sgambati
- Department of Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, 86090 Pesche, Italy
| | - Mirko Manetti
- Section of Anatomy and Histology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
| | - Mirca Marini
- Section of Anatomy and Histology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
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5
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Finocchietti S, Esposito D, Gori M. Monaural auditory spatial abilities in early blind individuals. Iperception 2023; 14:20416695221149638. [PMID: 36861104 PMCID: PMC9969445 DOI: 10.1177/20416695221149638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 03/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Early blind individuals can localize single sound sources better than sighted participants, even under monaural conditions. Yet, in binaural listening, they struggle with understanding the distances between three different sounds. The latter ability has never been tested under monaural conditions. We investigated the performance of eight early blind and eight blindfolded healthy individuals in monaural and binaural listening during two audio-spatial tasks. In the localization task, a single sound was played in front of participants who needed to localize it properly. In the auditory bisection task, three consecutive sounds were played from different spatial positions, and participants reported which sound the second one was closer to. Only early blind individuals improved their performance in the monaural bisection, while no statistical difference was present for the localization task. We concluded that early blind individuals show superior ability in using spectral cues under monaural conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Davide Esposito
- Davide Esposito, Unit for Visually Impaired
People, Italian Institute of Technology, 16131, Genoa, Italy.
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6
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Bordeau C, Scalvini F, Migniot C, Dubois J, Ambard M. Cross-modal correspondence enhances elevation localization in visual-to-auditory sensory substitution. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1079998. [PMID: 36777233 PMCID: PMC9909421 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1079998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2022] [Accepted: 01/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Visual-to-auditory sensory substitution devices are assistive devices for the blind that convert visual images into auditory images (or soundscapes) by mapping visual features with acoustic cues. To convey spatial information with sounds, several sensory substitution devices use a Virtual Acoustic Space (VAS) using Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) to synthesize natural acoustic cues used for sound localization. However, the perception of the elevation is known to be inaccurate with generic spatialization since it is based on notches in the audio spectrum that are specific to each individual. Another method used to convey elevation information is based on the audiovisual cross-modal correspondence between pitch and visual elevation. The main drawback of this second method is caused by the limitation of the ability to perceive elevation through HRTFs due to the spectral narrowband of the sounds. Method In this study we compared the early ability to localize objects with a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device where elevation is either conveyed using a spatialization-based only method (Noise encoding) or using pitch-based methods with different spectral complexities (Monotonic and Harmonic encodings). Thirty eight blindfolded participants had to localize a virtual target using soundscapes before and after having been familiarized with the visual-to-auditory encodings. Results Participants were more accurate to localize elevation with pitch-based encodings than with the spatialization-based only method. Only slight differences in azimuth localization performance were found between the encodings. Discussion This study suggests the intuitiveness of a pitch-based encoding with a facilitation effect of the cross-modal correspondence when a non-individualized sound spatialization is used.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camille Bordeau
- LEAD-CNRS UMR5022, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France,*Correspondence: Camille Bordeau ✉
| | | | | | - Julien Dubois
- ImViA EA 7535, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
| | - Maxime Ambard
- LEAD-CNRS UMR5022, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
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Cappagli G, Cuturi LF, Signorini S, Morelli F, Cocchi E, Gori M. Early visual deprivation disrupts the mental representation of numbers in visually impaired children. Sci Rep 2022; 12:22538. [PMID: 36581659 PMCID: PMC9800586 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-25044-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 11/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Several shreds of evidence indicate that visual deprivation does not alter numerical competence neither in adults nor in children. However, studies reporting non-impaired numerical abilities in the visually impaired population present some limitations: (a) they mainly assessed the ability to process numbers (e.g. mathematical competence) rather than represent numbers (e.g. mental number line); (b) they principally focused on positive rather than negative number estimates; (c) they investigated numerical abilities in adult individuals except one focusing on children (Crollen et al. in Cognition 210:104586, 2021). Overall, this could limit a comprehensive explanation of the role exerted by vision on numerical processing when vision is compromised. Here we investigated how congenital visual deprivation affects the ability to represent positive and negative numbers in horizontal and sagittal planes in visually impaired children (thirteen children with low vision, eight children with complete blindness, age range 6-15 years old). We adapted the number-to-position paradigm adopted by Crollen et al. (Cognition 210:104586, 2021), asking children to indicate the spatial position of positive and negative numbers on a graduated rule positioned horizontally or sagittally in the frontal plane. Results suggest that long-term visual deprivation alters the ability to identify the spatial position of numbers independently of the spatial plane and the number polarity. Moreover, results indicate that relying on poor visual acuity is detrimental for low vision children when asked to localize both positive and negative numbers in space, suggesting that visual experience might have a differential role in numerical processing depending on number polarity. Such findings add knowledge related to the impact of visual experience on numerical processing. Since both positive and negative numbers are fundamental aspects of learning mathematical principles, the outcomes of the present study inform about the need to implement early rehabilitation strategies to prevent the risk of numerical difficulties in visually impaired children.
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Affiliation(s)
- G. Cappagli
- grid.25786.3e0000 0004 1764 2907Unit for Visually Impaired People (UVIP), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Melen 83, 16100 Genova, Italy ,grid.419416.f0000 0004 1760 3107Developmental Neuro-Ophthalmology Unit, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - L. F. Cuturi
- grid.25786.3e0000 0004 1764 2907Unit for Visually Impaired People (UVIP), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Melen 83, 16100 Genova, Italy ,grid.10438.3e0000 0001 2178 8421Department of Cognitive, Psychological, Pedagogical Sciences and of Cultural Studies, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - S. Signorini
- grid.419416.f0000 0004 1760 3107Developmental Neuro-Ophthalmology Unit, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - F. Morelli
- grid.419416.f0000 0004 1760 3107Developmental Neuro-Ophthalmology Unit, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy ,grid.8982.b0000 0004 1762 5736Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | | | - M. Gori
- grid.25786.3e0000 0004 1764 2907Unit for Visually Impaired People (UVIP), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Melen 83, 16100 Genova, Italy
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8
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Ankeeta A, Kumaran SS, Saxena R, Dwivedi SN, Jagannathan NR, Narang V. Auditory perception of ambiguous and non-ambiguous sound in early and late blind children: A functional connectivity study. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2022; 231:105148. [PMID: 35738069 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Revised: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Auditory perception and associated cognition involve visual and auditory cortical areas for inference of meaningful soundscape. OBJECTIVE To investigate auditory perception of ambiguous and non-ambiguous stimulation in auditory and visual cortical networks for categorical discrimination. METHODOLOGY Functional mapping was carried out in twenty early (EB), twenty late blind (LB) and fifteen healthy children, during auditory ambiguous and non-ambiguous stimulation task in a 3 T MR scanner to estimate hemodynamic signal alteration and its effect on functional connectivity. The degree of amplitude low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), correlation analysis and multiple comparison was carried out to map the impact of duration of education and onset of blindness (EB and LB). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Increased functional connectivity (FC) and cross-modal reorganization was observed in auditory, visual and language networks in EB children. FC was increased in contralateral hemisphere in both the blind children (EB and LB) groups and was positively correlated with duration of education performance. Cognitive assessment scores correlated (p < 0.01) with cluster coefficient of FC and BOLD response. CONCLUSION FC alterations depend on onset age and audio-haptic training in children associated with increased auditory language and memory perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Ankeeta
- Department of NMR & MRI Facility, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India
| | - S Senthil Kumaran
- Department of NMR & MRI Facility, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India.
| | - Rohit Saxena
- Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
| | - Sada Nand Dwivedi
- Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
| | - N R Jagannathan
- Department of NMR & MRI Facility, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India
| | - Vaishna Narang
- School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies - I, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
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9
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Xiong YZ, Addleman DA, Nguyen NA, Nelson PB, Legge GE. Visual and Auditory Spatial Localization in Younger and Older Adults. Front Aging Neurosci 2022; 14:838194. [PMID: 35493928 PMCID: PMC9043801 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.838194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Visual and auditory localization abilities are crucial in real-life tasks such as navigation and social interaction. Aging is frequently accompanied by vision and hearing loss, affecting spatial localization. The purpose of the current study is to elucidate the effect of typical aging on spatial localization and to establish a baseline for older individuals with pathological sensory impairment. Using a verbal report paradigm, we investigated how typical aging affects visual and auditory localization performance, the reliance on vision during sound localization, and sensory integration strategies when localizing audiovisual targets. Fifteen younger adults (N = 15, mean age = 26 years) and thirteen older adults (N = 13, mean age = 68 years) participated in this study, all with age-adjusted normal vision and hearing based on clinical standards. There were significant localization differences between younger and older adults, with the older group missing peripheral visual stimuli at significantly higher rates, localizing central stimuli as more peripheral, and being less precise in localizing sounds from central locations when compared to younger subjects. Both groups localized auditory targets better when the test space was visible compared to auditory localization when blindfolded. The two groups also exhibited similar patterns of audiovisual integration, showing optimal integration in central locations that was consistent with a Maximum-Likelihood Estimation model, but non-optimal integration in peripheral locations. These findings suggest that, despite the age-related changes in auditory and visual localization, the interactions between vision and hearing are largely preserved in older individuals without pathological sensory impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ying-Zi Xiong
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
- *Correspondence: Ying-Zi Xiong,
| | - Douglas A. Addleman
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, United States
- Douglas A. Addleman,
| | - Nam Anh Nguyen
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Peggy B. Nelson
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Gordon E. Legge
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
- Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
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10
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Auditory distance perception in front and rear space. Hear Res 2022; 417:108468. [DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 01/22/2022] [Accepted: 02/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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Hládek Ľ, Seitz AR, Kopčo N. Auditory-visual interactions in egocentric distance perception: Ventriloquism effect and aftereffect. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2021; 150:3593. [PMID: 34852598 DOI: 10.1121/10.0007066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
This study describes data on auditory-visual integration and visually-guided adaptation of auditory distance perception using the ventriloquism effect (VE) and ventriloquism aftereffect (VAE). In an experiment, participants judged egocentric distance of interleaved auditory or auditory-visual stimuli with the auditory component located from 0.7 to 2.04 m in front of listeners in a real reverberant environment. The visual component of auditory-visual stimuli was displaced 30% closer (V-closer), 30% farther (V-farther), or aligned (V-aligned) with respect to the auditory component. The VE and VAE were measured in auditory and auditory-visual trials, respectively. Both effects were approximately independent of target distance when expressed in logarithmic units. The VE strength, defined as a difference of V-misaligned and V-aligned response bias, was approximately 72% of the auditory-visual disparity regardless of the visual-displacement direction, while the VAE was stronger in the V-farther (44%) than the V-closer (31%) condition. The VAE persisted to post-adaptation auditory-only blocks of trials, although it was diminished. The rates of build-up/break-down of the VAE were asymmetrical, with slower adaptation in the V-closer condition. These results suggest that auditory-visual distance integration is independent of the direction of induced shift, while the re-calibration is stronger and faster when evoked by more distant visual stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ľuboš Hládek
- Institute of Computer Science, P. J. Šafárik University, Jesenná 5, Košice, 040 01, Slovakia
| | - Aaron R Seitz
- Department of Psychology, University of California Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, California 92521, USA
| | - Norbert Kopčo
- Institute of Computer Science, P. J. Šafárik University, Jesenná 5, Košice, 040 01, Slovakia
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Esposito D, Bollini A, Gori M. The link between blindness onset and audiospatial processing: testing audiomotor cues in acoustic virtual reality. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2021; 2021:5880-5884. [PMID: 34892457 DOI: 10.1109/embc46164.2021.9629699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Vision seems essential for cross-modal calibration of auditory cues in spatial perception. Previous findings showed that, in some specific tasks such as sound localization, blind individuals have enhanced skills, suggesting that the audiomotor loop might partially compensate for early visual loss in the calibration of auditory space; however, direct evidence is still lacking. Here, we proposed a method based on the alteration of the audiomotor loop. Acoustic virtual reality was used to measure the audiomotor loop's influence on the space perception of blind individuals. We developed a VR steering task by head or trunk pointing to auditory sources, where the audiomotor conflict is induced by letting trunk rotations change the auditory scene together with head rotations. Early blind, late blind, and sighted participants were tested to assess their sensitivity to the induced audiomotor conflict. The platform demonstrated its effectiveness in exposing participants' sensitivity to the audiomotor loop alteration. The early blind group was significantly more affected than the sighted group, while the late blind group did not significantly differ from any of the other groups. Our results confirm the increased role of the audiomotor loop for audiospatial information processing in blindness and advocate for the development of new spatial orientation training for blind people based on exploiting the audiomotor loop itself.
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Partial visual loss disrupts the relationship between judged room size and sound source distance. Exp Brain Res 2021; 240:81-96. [PMID: 34623459 PMCID: PMC8803715 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06235-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2020] [Accepted: 09/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Visual spatial information plays an important role in calibrating auditory space. Blindness results in deficits in a number of auditory abilities, which have been explained in terms of the hypothesis that visual information is needed to calibrate audition. When judging the size of a novel room when only auditory cues are available, normally sighted participants may use the location of the farthest sound source to infer the nearest possible distance of the far wall. However, for people with partial visual loss (distinct from blindness in that some vision is present), such a strategy may not be reliable if vision is needed to calibrate auditory cues for distance. In the current study, participants were presented with sounds at different distances (ranging from 1.2 to 13.8 m) in a simulated reverberant (T60 = 700 ms) or anechoic room. Farthest distance judgments and room size judgments (volume and area) were obtained from blindfolded participants (18 normally sighted, 38 partially sighted) for speech, music, and noise stimuli. With sighted participants, the judged room volume and farthest sound source distance estimates were positively correlated (p < 0.05) for all conditions. Participants with visual losses showed no significant correlations for any of the conditions tested. A similar pattern of results was observed for the correlations between farthest distance and room floor area estimates. Results demonstrate that partial visual loss disrupts the relationship between judged room size and sound source distance that is shown by sighted participants.
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14
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Different mechanisms of magnitude and spatial representation for tactile and auditory modalities. Exp Brain Res 2021; 239:3123-3132. [PMID: 34415367 PMCID: PMC8536643 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06196-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 08/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The human brain creates an external world representation based on magnitude judgments by estimating distance, numerosity, or size. The magnitude and spatial representation are hypothesized to rely on common mechanisms shared by different sensory modalities. We explored the relationship between magnitude and spatial representation using two different sensory systems. We hypothesize that the interaction between space and magnitude is combined differently depending on sensory modalities. Furthermore, we aimed to understand the role of the spatial reference frame in magnitude representation. We used stimulus–response compatibility (SRC) to investigate these processes assuming that performance is improved if stimulus and response share common features. We designed an auditory and tactile SRC task with conflicting spatial and magnitude mapping. Our results showed that sensory modality modulates the relationship between space and magnitude. A larger effect of magnitude over spatial congruency occurred in a tactile task. However, magnitude and space showed similar weight in the auditory task, with neither spatial congruency nor magnitude congruency having a significant effect. Moreover, we observed that the spatial frame activated during tasks was elicited by the sensory inputs. The participants' performance was reversed in the tactile task between uncrossed and crossed hands posture, suggesting an internal coordinate system. In contrast, crossing the hands did not alter performance (i.e., using an allocentric frame of reference). Overall, these results suggest that space and magnitude interaction differ in auditory and tactile modalities, supporting the idea that these sensory modalities use different magnitude and spatial representation mechanisms.
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15
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Touj S, Cloutier S, Jemâa A, Piché M, Bronchti G, Al Aïn S. Better Olfactory Performance and Larger Olfactory Bulbs in a Mouse Model of Congenital Blindness. Chem Senses 2021; 45:523-531. [PMID: 32766717 DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
It is well established that early blindness results in enhancement of the remaining nonvisual sensory modalities accompanied by functional and anatomical brain plasticity. While auditory and tactile functions have been largely investigated, the results regarding olfactory functions remained less explored and less consistent. In the present study, we investigated olfactory function in blind mice using 3 tests: the buried food test, the olfactory threshold test, and the olfactory performance test. The results indicated better performance of blind mice in the buried food test and odor performance test while there was no difference in the olfactory threshold test. Using histological measurements, we also investigated if there was anatomical plasticity in the olfactory bulbs (OB), the most salient site for olfactory processing. The results indicated a larger volume of the OB driven by larger glomerular and granular layers in blind mice compared with sighted mice. Structural plasticity in the OB may underlie the enhanced olfactory performance in blind mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Touj
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Canada
| | - Samie Cloutier
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Canada
| | - Amel Jemâa
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Canada
| | - Mathieu Piché
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Canada
| | - Gilles Bronchti
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Canada
| | - Syrina Al Aïn
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Boul. des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Canada
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16
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Senna I, Cuturi LF, Gori M, Ernst MO, Cappagli G. Editorial: Spatial and Temporal Perception in Sensory Deprivation. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:671836. [PMID: 33859550 PMCID: PMC8042209 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.671836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Irene Senna
- Department of Applied Cognitive Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | | | - Monica Gori
- Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genoa, Italy
| | - Marc O Ernst
- Department of Applied Cognitive Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - Giulia Cappagli
- Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genoa, Italy.,Neurological Institute Foundation Casimiro Mondino (Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico), Pavia, Italy
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17
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Manescu S, Chouinard-Leclaire C, Collignon O, Lepore F, Frasnelli J. Enhanced Odorant Localization Abilities in Congenitally Blind but not in Late-Blind Individuals. Chem Senses 2021; 46:bjaa073. [PMID: 33140091 PMCID: PMC7909301 DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Although often considered a nondominant sense for spatial perception, chemosensory perception can be used to localize the source of an event and potentially help us navigate through our environment. Would blind people who lack the dominant spatial sense-vision-develop enhanced spatial chemosensation or suffer from the lack of visual calibration on spatial chemosensory perception? To investigate this question, we tested odorant localization abilities across nostrils in blind people compared to sighted controls and if the time of vision loss onset modulates those abilities. We observed that congenitally blind individuals (10 subjects) outperformed sighted (20 subjects) and late-blind subjects (10 subjects) in a birhinal localization task using mixed olfactory-trigeminal stimuli. This advantage in congenitally blind people was selective to olfactory localization but not observed for odorant detection or identification. We, therefore, showed that congenital blindness but not blindness acquired late in life is linked to enhanced localization of chemosensory stimuli across nostrils, most probably of the trigeminal component. In addition to previous studies highlighting enhanced localization abilities in auditory and tactile modalities, our current results extend such enhanced abilities to chemosensory localization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simona Manescu
- Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition, Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, CP, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Christine Chouinard-Leclaire
- Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition, Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, CP, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Olivier Collignon
- Center of Mind/Brain Sciences of University of Trento, Via Delle Regole, Mattarello, Trentino, Italy
- Institutes for Research in Psychology and Neurosciences, University of Louvain, IPSY - Place du Cardinal Mercier, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Franco Lepore
- Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition, Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, CP, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Johannes Frasnelli
- Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition, Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Marie-Victorin, CP, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Centre d’études avancées en médecine du sommeil, Centre de Recherche de l’Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, boulevard des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
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18
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Aprile G, Cappagli G, Morelli F, Gori M, Signorini S. Standardized and Experimental Tools to Assess Spatial Cognition in Visually Impaired Children: A Mini-Review. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:562589. [PMID: 33041760 PMCID: PMC7525087 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.562589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The acquisition of spatial cognition is essential for both everyday functioning (e.g., navigation) and more specific goals (e.g., mathematics), therefore being able to assess and monitor spatial cognition from the first years of life would be essential to predict developmental outcomes and timely intervene whenever spatial development is compromised. Several shreds of evidence have indicated that spatial development can be compromised in the case of development with atypical sensory experience such as blindness. Despite the massive importance of spatial abilities for the development of psychomotor competencies across childhood, only a few standardized and experimental methods have been developed to assess them in visually impaired children. In this review, we will give a short overview of current formal (standardized) and informal (experimental) methods to assess spatial cognition in visually impaired children, demonstrating that very few validated tools have been proposed to date. The main contribution of this current work is to highlight the need of ad hoc studies to create and validate clinical measures to assess spatial cognition in visually impaired individuals and address potential future developments in this area of research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giorgia Aprile
- Centre of Child Neurophthalmology, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Giulia Cappagli
- Centre of Child Neurophthalmology, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Federica Morelli
- Centre of Child Neurophthalmology, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Monica Gori
- Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
| | - Sabrina Signorini
- Centre of Child Neurophthalmology, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
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19
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Inuggi A, Pichiecchio A, Ciacchini B, Signorini S, Morelli F, Gori M. Multisystemic Increment of Cortical Thickness in Congenital Blind Children. Cereb Cortex Commun 2020; 1:tgaa071. [PMID: 34296131 PMCID: PMC8152892 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgaa071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Revised: 09/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been shown that the total or partial lack of visual experience is associated with a plastic reorganization at the brain level, more prominent in congenital blind. Cortical thickness (CT) studies, to date involving only adult subjects, showed that only congenital blind have a thicker cortex than age-matched sighted population while late blind do not. This was explained as a deviation from the physiological mechanism of initial neural growth followed by a pruning mechanism that, in congenital blind children, might be reduced by their visual deprivation, thus determining a thicker cortex. Since those studies involved only adults, it is unknown when these changes may appear and whether they are related to impairment degree. To address this question, we compared the CT among 28 children, from 2 to 12 years, with congenital visual impairments of different degree and an age-matched sighted population. Vertex-wise analysis showed that blind children, but not low vision one, had a thicker cortical surface in few clusters located in occipital, superior parietal, anterior-cingular, orbito-frontal, and mesial precentral regions. Our data suggest that the effect of visual impairment on determining thicker cortex is an early phenomenon, is multisystemic, and occurs only when blindness is almost complete.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alberto Inuggi
- Unit for Visually Impaired People (U-VIP), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152 Genova, Italy
| | - Anna Pichiecchio
- Department of Brain and Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | | | - Sabrina Signorini
- Centre of Child Neuro-Ophthalmology, Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Federica Morelli
- Department of Brain and Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Monica Gori
- Unit for Visually Impaired People (U-VIP), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152 Genova, Italy
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20
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Amadeo MB, Campus C, Gori M. Years of Blindness Lead to "Visualize" Space Through Time. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:812. [PMID: 32848573 PMCID: PMC7418563 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 07/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Spatial representation has been widely studied in early blindness, whereas research about late blindness is still limited. We recently demonstrated that the early (50-90 ms) event-related potential (ERP) response observed in sighted people during a spatial bisection task, is altered in early blind people and is influenced by the amount of time spent without vision in late blind individuals. Specifically, in late blind people a shorter period of blindness is associated with strong contralateral activation in occipital cortex and good performance during the spatial task-similar to that of sighted people. In contrast, non-lateralized occipital activation and lower performance characterize late blind individuals who have experienced a longer period of blindness-similar to that of early blind people. However, the same early occipital response activated in sighted individuals by spatial cues has been found to be activated by temporal cues in early blind individuals. Here, we investigate whether a similar temporal attraction can explain the neural and behavioral changes observed after many years of blindness in late blind people. An EEG recording was taken during a spatial bisection task where coherent and conflicting spatio-temporal information was presented. In participants with long blindness duration, the early recruitment of both visual and auditory areas is sensitive to temporal instead of spatial coordinates. These findings highlight some limits of neuroplasticity. Perceptual advantages from cross-sensory calibration during development seem to be subsequently lost following years of visual deprivation. This result has important implications for clinical outcomes following late blindness, highlighting the importance of timing in intervention and rehabilitation programs that activate compensatory strategies soon after sensory loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Bianca Amadeo
- Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
- Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, Università degli Studi di Genova, Genova, Italy
| | - Claudio Campus
- Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
| | - Monica Gori
- Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
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21
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Topalidis P, Zinchenko A, Gädeke JC, Föcker J. The role of spatial selective attention in the processing of affective prosodies in congenitally blind adults: An ERP study. Brain Res 2020; 1739:146819. [PMID: 32251662 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2019] [Revised: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/02/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
The question whether spatial selective attention is necessary in order to process vocal affective prosody has been controversially discussed in sighted individuals: whereas some studies argue that attention is required in order to process emotions, other studies conclude that vocal prosody can be processed even outside the focus of spatial selective attention. Here, we asked whether spatial selective attention is necessary for the processing of affective prosodies after visual deprivation from birth. For this purpose, pseudowords spoken in happy, neutral, fearful or threatening prosodies were presented at the left or right loudspeaker. Congenitally blind individuals (N = 8) and sighted controls (N = 13) had to attend to one of the loudspeakers and detect rare pseudowords presented at the attended loudspeaker during EEG recording. Emotional prosody of the syllables was task-irrelevant. Blind individuals outperformed sighted controls by being more efficient in detecting deviant syllables at the attended loudspeaker. A higher auditory N1 amplitude was observed in blind individuals compared to sighted controls. Additionally, sighted controls showed enhanced attention-related ERP amplitudes in response to fearful and threatening voices during the time range of the N1. By contrast, blind individuals revealed enhanced ERP amplitudes in attended relative to unattended locations irrespective of the affective valence in all time windows (110-350 ms). These effects were mainly observed at posterior electrodes. The results provide evidence for "emotion-general" auditory spatial selective attention effects in congenitally blind individuals and suggest a potential reorganization of the voice processing brain system following visual deprivation from birth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavlos Topalidis
- Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
| | - Artyom Zinchenko
- Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
| | - Julia C Gädeke
- Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Germany
| | - Julia Föcker
- Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Germany; University of Lincoln, School of Social Sciences, United Kingdom.
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22
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Kolarik AJ, Raman R, Moore BCJ, Cirstea S, Gopalakrishnan S, Pardhan S. The accuracy of auditory spatial judgments in the visually impaired is dependent on sound source distance. Sci Rep 2020; 10:7169. [PMID: 32346036 PMCID: PMC7189236 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64306-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2019] [Accepted: 04/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Blindness leads to substantial enhancements in many auditory abilities, and deficits in others. It is unknown how severe visual losses need to be before changes in auditory abilities occur, or whether the relationship between severity of visual loss and changes in auditory abilities is proportional and systematic. Here we show that greater severity of visual loss is associated with increased auditory judgments of distance and room size. On average participants with severe visual losses perceived sounds to be twice as far away, and rooms to be three times larger, than sighted controls. Distance estimates for sighted controls were most accurate for closer sounds and least accurate for farther sounds. As the severity of visual impairment increased, accuracy decreased for closer sounds and increased for farther sounds. However, it is for closer sounds that accurate judgments are needed to guide rapid motor responses to auditory events, e.g. planning a safe path through a busy street to avoid collisions with other people, and falls. Interestingly, greater visual impairment severity was associated with more accurate room size estimates. The results support a new hypothesis that crossmodal calibration of audition by vision depends on the severity of visual loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J Kolarik
- Vision and Eye Research Institute, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom. .,Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
| | - Rajiv Raman
- Vision and Eye Research Institute, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,Shri Bhagwan Mahavir Vitreoretinal Services, Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital, Chennai, India
| | - Brian C J Moore
- Vision and Eye Research Institute, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Silvia Cirstea
- Vision and Eye Research Institute, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.,School of Computing and Information Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Sarika Gopalakrishnan
- Faculty of Low Vision Care, Elite School of Optometry, Chennai, India.,Low Vision Care Department, Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital, Chennai, India
| | - Shahina Pardhan
- Vision and Eye Research Institute, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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23
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Nardi D, Twyman AD, Holden MP, Clark JM. Tuning in: can humans use auditory cues for spatial reorientation? SPATIAL COGNITION AND COMPUTATION 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/13875868.2019.1702665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Nardi
- Department of Psychological Science, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA
- Department of Psychology, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, USA
| | - Alexandra D. Twyman
- Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Department of Psychology, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada
- Department of Psychology, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada
| | - Mark P. Holden
- Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
| | - Josie M. Clark
- Department of Educational Leadership, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA
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24
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The Cross-Modal Effects of Sensory Deprivation on Spatial and Temporal Processes in Vision and Audition: A Systematic Review on Behavioral and Neuroimaging Research since 2000. Neural Plast 2019; 2019:9603469. [PMID: 31885540 PMCID: PMC6914961 DOI: 10.1155/2019/9603469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2019] [Revised: 07/06/2019] [Accepted: 10/31/2019] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
One of the most significant effects of neural plasticity manifests in the case of sensory deprivation when cortical areas that were originally specialized for the functions of the deprived sense take over the processing of another modality. Vision and audition represent two important senses needed to navigate through space and time. Therefore, the current systematic review discusses the cross-modal behavioral and neural consequences of deafness and blindness by focusing on spatial and temporal processing abilities, respectively. In addition, movement processing is evaluated as compiling both spatial and temporal information. We examine whether the sense that is not primarily affected changes in its own properties or in the properties of the deprived modality (i.e., temporal processing as the main specialization of audition and spatial processing as the main specialization of vision). References to the metamodal organization, supramodal functioning, and the revised neural recycling theory are made to address global brain organization and plasticity principles. Generally, according to the reviewed studies, behavioral performance is enhanced in those aspects for which both the deprived and the overtaking senses provide adequate processing resources. Furthermore, the behavioral enhancements observed in the overtaking sense (i.e., vision in the case of deafness and audition in the case of blindness) are clearly limited by the processing resources of the overtaking modality. Thus, the brain regions that were previously recruited during the behavioral performance of the deprived sense now support a similar behavioral performance for the overtaking sense. This finding suggests a more input-unspecific and processing principle-based organization of the brain. Finally, we highlight the importance of controlling for and stating factors that might impact neural plasticity and the need for further research into visual temporal processing in deaf subjects.
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25
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Kabbaligere R, Layne CS, Karmali F. Perception of threshold-level whole-body motion during mechanical mastoid vibration. J Vestib Res 2019; 28:283-294. [PMID: 30149483 DOI: 10.3233/ves-180636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Vibration applied on the mastoid has been shown to be an excitatory stimulus to the vestibular receptors, but its effect on vestibular perception is unknown. OBJECTIVE Determine whether mastoid vibration affects yaw rotation perception using a self-motion perceptual direction-recognition task. METHODS We used continuous, bilateral, mechanical mastoid vibration using a stimulus with frequency content between 1 and 500 Hz. Vestibular perception of 10 healthy adults (M±S.D. = 34.3±12 years old) was tested with and without vibration. Subjects repeatedly reported the perceived direction of threshold-level yaw rotations administered at 1 Hz by a motorized platform. A cumulative Gaussian distribution function was fit to subjects' responses, which was described by two parameters: bias and threshold. Bias was defined as the mean of the Gaussian distribution, and equal to the motion perceived on average when exposed to null stimuli. Threshold was defined as the standard deviation of the distribution and corresponded to the stimulus the subject could reliably perceive. RESULTS The results show that mastoid vibration may reduce bias, although two statistical tests yield different conclusions. There was no evidence that yaw rotation thresholds were affected. CONCLUSIONS Bilateral mastoid vibration may reduce left-right asymmetry in motion perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rakshatha Kabbaligere
- Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.,Center for Neuromotor and Biomechanics Research, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Charles S Layne
- Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.,Center for Neuromotor and Biomechanics Research, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.,Center for Neuro-Engineering and Cognitive Science, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Faisal Karmali
- Jenks Vestibular Physiology Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, MA, USA.,Department of Otolaryngology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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26
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Touj S, Tokunaga R, Al Aïn S, Bronchti G, Piché M. Pain Hypersensitivity is Associated with Increased Amygdala Volume and c-Fos Immunoreactivity in Anophthalmic Mice. Neuroscience 2019; 418:37-49. [PMID: 31472214 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.08.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2018] [Revised: 08/15/2019] [Accepted: 08/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
It is well established that early blindness results in brain plasticity and behavioral changes in both humans and animals. However, only a few studies have examined the effects of blindness on pain perception. In these studies, pain hypersensitivity was reported in early, but not late, blind humans. The underlying mechanisms remain unclear, but considering its key role in pain perception and modulation, the amygdala may contribute to this pain hypersensitivity. The first aim of this study was to develop an animal model of early blindness to examine the effects of blindness on pain perception. A mouse cross was therefore developed (ZRDBA mice), in which half of the animals are born sighted and half are born anophthalmic, allowing comparisons between blind and sighted mice with the same genetic background. The second aim of the present study was to examine mechanical and thermal pain thresholds as well as pain behaviors and pain-related c-Fos immunoreactivity induced by the formalin test in the amygdalas of blind and sighted mice. Group differences in amygdala volume were also assessed histologically. Blind mice exhibited lower mechanical and thermal pain thresholds and more pain behaviors during the acute phase of the formalin test, compared with sighted mice. Moreover, pain hypersensitivity during the formalin test was associated with increased c-Fos immunoreactivity in the amygdala. Furthermore, amygdala volume was larger bilaterally in blind compared with sighted mice. These results indicate that congenitally blind mice show pain hypersensitivity like early blind individuals and suggest that this is due in part to plasticity in the amygdala.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Touj
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7; CogNAC Research Group, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7
| | - Ryota Tokunaga
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7; CogNAC Research Group, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7
| | - Syrina Al Aïn
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7; CogNAC Research Group, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7
| | - Gilles Bronchti
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7; CogNAC Research Group, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7
| | - Mathieu Piché
- Department of Anatomy, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7; CogNAC Research Group, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boul. Des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7.
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Amadeo MB, Störmer VS, Campus C, Gori M. Peripheral sounds elicit stronger activity in contralateral occipital cortex in blind than sighted individuals. Sci Rep 2019; 9:11637. [PMID: 31406158 PMCID: PMC6690873 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-48079-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2019] [Accepted: 07/26/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research has shown that peripheral, task-irrelevant sounds elicit activity in contralateral visual cortex of sighted people, as revealed by a sustained positive deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) over the occipital scalp contralateral to the sound’s location. This Auditory-evoked Contralateral Occipital Positivity (ACOP) appears between 200–450 ms after sound onset, and is present even when the task is entirely auditory and no visual stimuli are presented at all. Here, we investigate whether this cross-modal activation of contralateral visual cortex is influenced by visual experience. To this end, ERPs were recorded in 12 sighted and 12 blind subjects during a unimodal auditory task. Participants listened to a stream of sounds and pressed a button every time they heard a central target tone, while ignoring the peripheral noise bursts. It was found that task-irrelevant noise bursts elicited a larger ACOP in blind compared to sighted participants, indicating for the first time that peripheral sounds can enhance neural activity in visual cortex in a spatially lateralized manner even in visually deprived individuals. Overall, these results suggest that the cross-modal activation of contralateral visual cortex triggered by peripheral sounds does not require any visual input to develop, and is rather enhanced by visual deprivation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Bianca Amadeo
- U-VIP: Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy. .,Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, Università degli Studi di Genova, Genova, Italy.
| | - Viola S Störmer
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California San Diego, San Diego, USA
| | - Claudio Campus
- U-VIP: Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
| | - Monica Gori
- U-VIP: Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
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Amadeo MB, Campus C, Gori M. Impact of years of blindness on neural circuits underlying auditory spatial representation. Neuroimage 2019; 191:140-149. [PMID: 30710679 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.01.073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2018] [Revised: 01/10/2019] [Accepted: 01/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Early visual deprivation impacts negatively on spatial bisection abilities. Recently, an early (50-90 ms) ERP response, selective for sound position in space, has been observed in the visual cortex of sighted individuals during the spatial but not the temporal bisection task. Here, we clarify the role of vision on spatial bisection abilities and neural correlates by studying late blind individuals. Results highlight that a shorter period of blindness is linked to a stronger contralateral activation in the visual cortex and a better performance during the spatial bisection task. Contrarily, not lateralized visual activation and lower performance are observed in individuals with a longer period of blindness. To conclude, the amount of time spent without vision may gradually impact on neural circuits underlying the construction of spatial representations in late blind participants. These findings suggest a key relationship between visual deprivation and auditory spatial abilities in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Bianca Amadeo
- Unit for Visually Impaired People (U-VIP), Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via E. Melen, 83 - 16152, Genova, Italy; Università degli studi di Genova, Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, Via all'Opera Pia, 13 - 16145, Genova, Italy
| | - Claudio Campus
- Unit for Visually Impaired People (U-VIP), Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via E. Melen, 83 - 16152, Genova, Italy
| | - Monica Gori
- Unit for Visually Impaired People (U-VIP), Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via E. Melen, 83 - 16152, Genova, Italy.
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de Borst AW, de Gelder B. Mental Imagery Follows Similar Cortical Reorganization as Perception: Intra-Modal and Cross-Modal Plasticity in Congenitally Blind. Cereb Cortex 2018; 29:2859-2875. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhy151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2018] [Revised: 05/27/2018] [Accepted: 06/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Cortical plasticity in congenitally blind individuals leads to cross-modal activation of the visual cortex and may lead to superior perceptual processing in the intact sensory domains. Although mental imagery is often defined as a quasi-perceptual experience, it is unknown whether it follows similar cortical reorganization as perception in blind individuals. In this study, we show that auditory versus tactile perception evokes similar intra-modal discriminative patterns in congenitally blind compared with sighted participants. These results indicate that cortical plasticity following visual deprivation does not influence broad intra-modal organization of auditory and tactile perception as measured by our task. Furthermore, not only the blind, but also the sighted participants showed cross-modal discriminative patterns for perception modality in the visual cortex. During mental imagery, both groups showed similar decoding accuracies for imagery modality in the intra-modal primary sensory cortices. However, no cross-modal discriminative information for imagery modality was found in early visual cortex of blind participants, in contrast to the sighted participants. We did find evidence of cross-modal activation of higher visual areas in blind participants, including the representation of specific-imagined auditory features in visual area V4.
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Affiliation(s)
- A W de Borst
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK
- Brain and Emotion Lab, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - B de Gelder
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK
- Brain and Emotion Lab, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands
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Kolarik AJ, Raman R, Moore BCJ, Cirstea S, Gopalakrishnan S, Pardhan S. Partial Visual Loss Affects Self-reports of Hearing Abilities Measured Using a Modified Version of the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Questionnaire. Front Psychol 2017; 8:561. [PMID: 28446890 PMCID: PMC5388775 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00561] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2017] [Accepted: 03/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We assessed how visually impaired (VI) people perceived their own auditory abilities using an established hearing questionnaire, the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ), that was adapted to make it relevant and applicable to VI individuals by removing references to visual aspects while retaining the meaning of the original questions. The resulting questionnaire, the SSQvi, assessed perceived hearing ability in diverse situations including the ability to follow conversations with multiple speakers, assessing how far away a vehicle is, and the ability to perceptually segregate simultaneous sounds. The SSQvi was administered to 33 VI and 33 normally sighted participants. All participants had normal hearing or mild hearing loss, and all VI participants had some residual visual ability. VI participants gave significantly higher (better) scores than sighted participants for: (i) one speech question, indicating less difficulty in following a conversation that switches from one person to another, (ii) one spatial question, indicating less difficulty in localizing several talkers, (iii) three qualities questions, indicating less difficulty with segregating speech from music, hearing music more clearly, and better speech intelligibility in a car. These findings are consistent with the perceptual enhancement hypothesis, that certain auditory abilities are improved to help compensate for loss of vision, and show that full visual loss is not necessary for perceived changes in auditory ability to occur for a range of auditory situations. For all other questions, scores were not significantly different between the two groups. Questions related to effort, concentration, and ignoring distracting sounds were rated as most difficult for VI participants, as were situations involving divided-attention contexts with multiple streams of speech, following conversations in noise and in echoic environments, judging elevation or distance, and externalizing sounds. The questionnaire has potential clinical applications in assessing the success of clinical interventions and setting more realistic goals for intervention for those with auditory and/or visual losses. The results contribute toward providing benchmark scores for VI individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J Kolarik
- Vision and Eye Research Unit, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Anglia Ruskin UniversityCambridge, UK.,Department of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridge, UK.,Centre for the Study of the Senses, Institute of Philosophy, University of LondonLondon, UK
| | - Rajiv Raman
- Vision and Eye Research Unit, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Anglia Ruskin UniversityCambridge, UK.,Shri Bhagwan Mahavir Vitreoretinal Services, Sankara Nethralaya Eye HospitalChennai, India
| | - Brian C J Moore
- Department of Psychology, University of CambridgeCambridge, UK
| | - Silvia Cirstea
- Vision and Eye Research Unit, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Anglia Ruskin UniversityCambridge, UK
| | | | - Shahina Pardhan
- Vision and Eye Research Unit, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Anglia Ruskin UniversityCambridge, UK
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