Development of multisensory integration following prolonged early-onset visual deprivation. Senna et al.
Description
In the present study we investigated the development of multisensory integration in individuals who suffered from congenital bilateral cataract and got surgically treated for sight restoration several years from birth. We found that multisensory integration can still develop with time following surgery after several years of early-onset visual deprivation. Experiment 1 assessed cataract-treated individuals' reliance on their restored visual abilities when estimating the size of an object simultaneously explored by touch. Participants explored a standard object visually, haptically or visual-haptically and compared it to a set of ten comparison objects, presented either visually or haptically. They had to select the comparison object that in their opinion matched the size of the standard object. To evaluate participants’ reliance on vision we added a small discrepancy between vision and haptics using a distortion lens magnifying the apparent size of the explored object. The folder relative to Experiment 1 (see Figure 1 in the main text and S2 in the Supplemental information) presents: a) a summary table with all clinical details and average performance of each cataract participant and sighted control in each condition; b) all experimental trials, meaning each single response from each participant in each group (i.e., the comparison object selected in each trial, reported as object number and in object size). Experiment 2 tested whether cataract-treated individuals benefited from integrating vision with touch by increasing the precision of size estimates, as it occurs when integrating signals in a statistically optimal fashion. Participants consecutively explored pairs of cubes visually, haptically and visual-haptically and reported which one was bigger. The folder relative to Experiment 2 (see Figure 2 in the main text) reports: a) a summary table with all clinical details and average performance of each cataract participant and sighted control in each condition; b) all responses in each participant, organized for fitting psychometric functions for each participant and condition (first column: stimulus level, i.e., comparison size with higher number indicating bigger size; second column: number of ‘comparison bigger’ responses; third column: number of trials).