title: Enhancement of visual motion detection thresholds in early deaf people.
abstract: In deaf people, the auditory cortex can reorganize to support visual motion processing. Although this cross-modal reorganization has long been thought to subserve enhanced visual abilities, previous research has been unsuccessful at identifying behavioural enhancements specific to motion processing. Recently, research with congenitally deaf cats has uncovered an enhancement for visual motion detection. Our goal was to test for a similar difference between deaf and hearing people. We tested 16 early and profoundly deaf participants and 20 hearing controls. Participants completed a visual motion detection task, in which they were asked to determine which of two sinusoidal gratings was moving. The speed of the moving grating varied according to an adaptive staircase procedure, allowing us to determine the lowest speed necessary for participants to detect motion. Consistent with previous research in deaf cats, the deaf group had lower motion detection thresholds than the hearing. This finding supports the proposal that cross-modal reorganization after sensory deprivation will occur for supramodal sensory features and preserve the output functions.
authors.affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; BRAMS: International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; CRBLM Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Martha M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Shiell
authors.affiliation: BRAMS: International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; CRBLM Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; École d'orthophonie et d'audiologie, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire en réadaptation du Montréal métropolitain - Institut Raymond Dewar, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Champoux
authors.affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; BRAMS: International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; CRBLM Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Zatorre
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012683:Sensory Deprivation / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*