Affiliations: Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University
of Hamburg, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: Lisa Putzar, Biological Psychology and
Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, D-20146 Hamburg,
Germany. Tel.: +49 40 428384723; Fax: +49 40 42838 6591; E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Purpose: The investigation of patients treated for bilateral
congenital cataracts allows to study the development of visual and multisensory
functions after a period of visual deprivation in early infancy. In the present
study, cataract patients were tested for their capability to recognize faces
and to integrate auditory and visual speech information. Methods: In Experiment 1, 12 cataract patients were tested with the Benton Facial
Recognition Test. In Experiment 2, a McGurk paradigm was used that investigated
audio-visual interaction and lip-reading capabilities. Here, fifteen cataract
patients participated and were compared to normally sighted controls and to
visually impaired controls. Results: In the Benton Facial Recognition
Test, cataract patients' performance was unimpaired when target and test face
were identical. By contrast, they performed worse than a normally sighted
control group when head orientation and/or lighting conditions of the test
faces were changed. In the McGurk paradigm, cataract patients displayed
impaired lip-reading abilities and a reduced audio-visual interaction compared
to normally sighted controls. The latter deficit prevailed even in a sub-group
matched for lip-reading capacities with a normally sighted control sub-group. Conclusion: These results suggest that visual input in early infancy is a
prerequisite for a normal development of visual and multisensory functions.
Keywords: Visual deprivation, cataract, face recognition, lip-reading, audio-visual integration
