Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Early visual deprivation impairs multisensory interactions in humans

Nature Neuroscience volume 10, pages 1243–1245 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Animal studies have shown that visual deprivation during the first months of life permanently impairs the interactions between sensory systems. Here we report an analogous effect for humans who had been deprived of pattern vision for at least the first five months of their life as a result of congenital binocular cataracts. These patients showed reduced audio-visual interactions in later life, although their visual performance in control tasks was unimpaired. Thus, adequate (multisensory) input during the first months of life seems to be a prerequisite in humans, as well as in animals, for the full development of cross-modal interactions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Experiment 1.
Figure 2: Experiment 2.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lewkowicz, D.J. & Lickliter, R. (eds.). The Development of Intersensory Perception: Comparative Perspectives (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wallace, M.T. & Stein, B.E. J. Neurosci. 17, 2429–2444 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Wallace, M.T. Cogn. Process. 5, 69–83 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Wallace, M.T. & Stein, B.E. J. Neurophysiol. 97, 921–926 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hötting, K., Rösler, F. & Röder, B. Exp. Brain Res. 159, 370–381 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Röder, B., Rösler, F. & Spence, C. Curr. Biol. 14, 121–124 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wallace, M.T., Perrault, T.J., Jr., Hairston, W.D. & Stein, B.E. J. Neurosci. 24, 9580–9584 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Carlson, S., Pertovaara, A. & Tanila, H. Brain Res. 430, 101–111 (1987).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Le Grand, R., Mondloch, C.J., Maurer, D. & Brent, H.P. Nature 410, 890 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Maurer, D., Lewis, T.L., Brent, H.P. & Levin, A.V. Science 286, 108–110 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Ghazanfar, A.A., Maier, J.X., Hoffman, K.L. & Logothetis, N.K. J. Neurosci. 25, 5004–5012 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Ellemberg, D., Lewis, T.L., Maurer, D., Lui, C.H. & Brent, H.P. Vision Res. 39, 3480–3489 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Ernst, M.O. & Banks, M.S. Nature 415, 429–433 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Röder, B., Kusmierek, A., Spence, C. & Schicke, T. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 4753–4758 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all participants; many of the individuals put in a great deal of effort to participate. We thank the Deutsche Blindenstudienanstalt Marburg, the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospitals Giessen and Marburg (P. Kroll) and Hamburg (G. Richard), the Westfälisches Berufskolleg fuer Blinde und Sehbehinderte Soest, and the Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology, Strabismology and Ophthalmogenetics at the University of Regensburg (B. Lorenz) for their support in recruiting participants. We thank K. Hoetting for providing the control data for Experiment 3, J. Gläscher for programming support for Experiment 2, and C. Büchel for early comments on Experiment 2. This study was supported by grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG; Ro 1226/4-2 and 4-3) to B.R.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, Hamburg, D-20146, Germany

    Lisa Putzar, Ines Goerendt & Brigitte Röder

  2. Department of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, Düsseldorf, D-40225, Germany

    Kathrin Lange

  3. Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Gutenbergstrasse 18, Marburg, D-35032, Germany

    Frank Rösler

Authors
  1. Lisa Putzar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ines Goerendt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kathrin Lange
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Frank Rösler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Brigitte Röder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

L.P. and B.R. designed the research and K.L. contributed a major research idea. L.P. and I.G. carried out the research, L.P. and B.R. analyzed the data and L.P., B.R. and F.R. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa Putzar.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Table 1, Methods, Note (PDF 677 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Putzar, L., Goerendt, I., Lange, K. et al. Early visual deprivation impairs multisensory interactions in humans. Nat Neurosci 10, 1243–1245 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1978

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1978

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing