Narinesingh Cindy, Goltz Herbert C, Raashid Rana Arham, Wong Agnes M F
Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2015 Mar 5;56(3):2107-13. doi: 10.1167/iovs.14-15898.
The McGurk effect is an audiovisual illusion that involves the concurrent presentation of a phoneme (auditory syllable) and an incongruent viseme (visual syllable). Adults with amblyopia show less susceptibility to this illusion than visually normal controls, even when viewing binocularly. The present study investigated the developmental trajectory of McGurk effect susceptibility in adults, older children (10-17 years), and younger children (4-9 years) with amblyopia.
A total of 62 participants with amblyopia (22 adults, 12 older children, 28 younger children) and 66 visually normal controls (25 adults, 17 older children, 24 younger children) viewed videos that combined phonemes and visemes, and were asked to report what they heard. Videos with congruent (auditory and visual matching) and incongruent (auditory and visual not matching) stimuli were presented. Incorrect responses on incongruent trials correspond to high McGurk effect susceptibility, indicating that the viseme influenced the phoneme.
Participants with amblyopia (28.0% ± 3.3%) demonstrated a less consistent McGurk effect than visually normal controls (15.2% ± 2.3%) across all age groups (P = 0.0024). Effect susceptibility increased with age (P = 0.0003) for amblyopic participants and controls. Both groups showed a similar response pattern to different speakers and syllables, but amblyopic participants invariably demonstrated a less consistent effect.
Amblyopia is associated with reduced McGurk effect susceptibility in children and adults. Our findings indicate that the differences do not simply indicate delayed development in children with amblyopia; rather, they represent permanent alterations that persist into adulthood.
麦格克效应是一种视听错觉，涉及同时呈现一个音素（听觉音节）和一个不一致的视素（视觉音节）。患有弱视的成年人比视力正常的对照组对这种错觉的易感性更低，即使是双眼观看时也是如此。本研究调查了患有弱视的成年人、大龄儿童（10 - 17岁）和小龄儿童（4 - 9岁）中麦格克效应易感性的发展轨迹。
共有62名弱视参与者（22名成年人、12名大龄儿童、28名小龄儿童）和66名视力正常的对照组（25名成年人、17名大龄儿童、24名小龄儿童）观看了结合了音素和视素的视频，并被要求报告他们听到的内容。呈现了具有一致（听觉和视觉匹配）和不一致（听觉和视觉不匹配）刺激的视频。在不一致试验中的错误反应对应于高麦格克效应易感性，表明视素影响了音素。
在所有年龄组中，弱视参与者（28.0% ± 3.3%）表现出的麦格克效应一致性低于视力正常的对照组（15.2% ± 2.3%）（P = 0.0024）。弱视参与者和对照组的效应易感性均随年龄增加（P = 0.0003）。两组对不同说话者和音节表现出相似的反应模式，但弱视参与者始终表现出较低的一致性效应。
弱视与儿童和成人麦格克效应易感性降低有关。我们的研究结果表明，这些差异并非简单地表明弱视儿童发育延迟；相反，它们代表了持续到成年期的永久性改变。
