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Deafness pp 237–263Cite as

Visual Attention in Deaf Humans: A Neuroplasticity Perspective

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Part of the book series: Springer Handbook of Auditory Research ((SHAR,volume 47))

Abstract

Deaf people have only an attenuated experience, if any, of hearing. The study of individuals born deaf provides a window onto the role of audition in the functional and cognitive specialization of the brain, as well as onto typical multisensory integration. Deaf individuals allow researchers to ask what happens to the remaining senses in the absence of audition. Research suggests that deaf people do not have enhanced sensory abilities. Rather, the changes appear to be attentional in nature and are related to the recruitment of auditory cortex for visual functions as well as changes in parietal and posterior superior temporal cortices. Studies of deaf adults have led to the proposal they can orient visual attention faster than hearing adults, and that they are better able to process information in the visual periphery. These examples of attentional enhancement are at odds with data from deaf children, who appear to have deficits in sustaining attention and ignoring task-irrelevant distraction. However, adult and child studies often recruit from very different deaf populations. Studies reporting enhancements in deaf adults have typically tested native signers, who were raised in deaf families and exposed to a natural signed language from birth. On the other hand, developmental studies have often focused on deaf children born to hearing parents, who typically experience language delays and associated cognitive deficits as exposure to a natural language is absent at birth and reinstantiated in the first years of life only through cochlear implants or hearing aids.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    Matthew W. G. Dye

  2. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA

    Daphne Bavelier

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  1. Matthew W. G. Dye
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Correspondence to Matthew W. G. Dye .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hannover Medical School, Institute of Audioneurotechnology, Hannover, Germany

    Andrej Kral

  2. Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Arthur N. Popper

  3. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

    Richard R. Fay

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Dye, M.W.G., Bavelier, D. (2013). Visual Attention in Deaf Humans: A Neuroplasticity Perspective. In: Kral, A., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Deafness. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 47. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/2506_2013_9

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