Center for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India.
Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, Secunderabad, India.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 15;7(1):8158. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08616-4.
Compensatory changes as a result of auditory deprivation in the deaf lead to higher visual processing skills. In two experiments, we explored if such brain plasticity in the deaf modulates processing of masked stimuli in the visual modality. Deaf and normal-hearing participants responded to targets either voluntarily or by instruction. Masked primes related to the response were presented briefly before the targets at the center and the periphery. In Experiment 1, targets appeared only at the foveal region whereas, in Experiment 2, they appeared both at the fovea and the periphery. The deaf showed higher sensitivity to masked primes in both the experiments. They chose the primed response more often and also were faster during congruent responses compared to the normal hearing. These results suggest that neuroplasticity in the deaf modulates how they perceive and use information with reduced visibility for action selection and execution.
由于聋人听觉剥夺而导致的代偿变化会提高视觉处理技能。在两项实验中，我们探讨了聋人这种大脑可塑性是否会调节视觉模式下掩蔽刺激的处理。聋人和正常听力参与者要么自愿，要么通过指令对目标做出反应。掩蔽启动刺激与反应相关，在目标出现在中央和外周之前短暂出现。在实验 1 中，目标只出现在中央凹区域，而在实验 2 中，它们既出现在中央凹又出现在外周。聋人在这两项实验中对掩蔽启动刺激的敏感性更高。与正常听力相比，他们在一致反应时更频繁地选择启动反应，而且反应速度也更快。这些结果表明，聋人的神经可塑性调节了他们如何感知和利用信息，以便在行动选择和执行时减少可见度。
