Visual experience shapes the Bouba-Kiki effect and the size-weight illusion upon sight restoration from congenital blindness

The Bouba-Kiki effect is the systematic mapping between round/spiky shapes and speech sounds (“Bouba”/“Kiki”). In the size-weight illusion, participants judge the smaller of two equally-weighted objects as being heavier. Here we investigated the contribution of visual experience to the development o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-07, Vol.13 (1), p.11435-11435, Article 11435
Main Authors: Piller, Sophia, Senna, Irene, Ernst, Marc O.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/378
631/477/2811
Birth
Blindness - congenital
Cataract
Cataracts
Critical period
Explicit knowledge
Eye Abnormalities
Haptics
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Illusions
multidisciplinary
Phonetics
Regression analysis
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Surgery
Vision Disorders
Vision, Ocular
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Summary:The Bouba-Kiki effect is the systematic mapping between round/spiky shapes and speech sounds (“Bouba”/“Kiki”). In the size-weight illusion, participants judge the smaller of two equally-weighted objects as being heavier. Here we investigated the contribution of visual experience to the development of these phenomena. We compared three groups: early blind individuals (no visual experience), individuals treated for congenital cataracts years after birth (late visual experience), and typically sighted controls (visual experience from birth). We found that, in cataract-treated participants (tested visually/visuo-haptically), both phenomena are absent shortly after sight onset, just like in blind individuals (tested haptically). However, they emerge within months following surgery, becoming statistically indistinguishable from the sighted controls. This suggests a pivotal role of visual experience and refutes the existence of an early sensitive period: A short period of experience, even when gained only years after birth, is sufficient for participants to visually pick-up regularities in the environment, contributing to the development of these phenomena.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-38486-y