A study by Rashi Pant has been published in the journal Scientific Reports
A person's multisensory processing can be damaged for life by visual impairment in childhood. Rashi Pant addressed the question of whether impairments in visual-haptic integration in childhood can recover.
One way to assess visual and multisensory functional recovery is to test their susceptibility to known perceptual illusions. Perceptual illusions are typically robust, suggesting that they arise from automatic processing principles. Therefore, the absence of perception of a visual illusion is indicative of impaired visual or multisensory processing.
In the article "The size-weight illusion is unimpaired in individuals with a history of congenital visual deprivation", the researchers describe their research findings based on two separate experiments. In the experiments, the charpentierian perceptual illusion (also called the size-weight illusion) was tested in different subjects. Size-weight illusions occur when sighted people compare two objects of equal weight and perceive the one with the largest volume as lighter.
From the experiments, it appears that a previous aberrant vision does not affect charpentierian perception. These results provide strong evidence that the visual-haptic processes, even without visual experience, can develop normally.
Congratulations to Rashi Pant!