How vision matters for individuals with hearing loss

Hearing loss has obvious implications for communication and auditory functioning. A less obvious implication of hearing loss is its effect on the remaining sensory systems, particularly vision. This paper will review research demonstrating that deafness affects the development of specific visual functions and their neural substrates, including motion processing, face processing, and attention to peripheral space. Implications of this cross-modal plasticity are discussed in a review of studies with cochlear implant recipients. This latter work suggests that visual speech perception skills that develop during periods of deafness have positive implications for later perception of auditory speech. These effects are discussed in light of multimodal processing and perceptual learning.