@article{ref1,
title="The interaction of the visuo-spatial and the vestibular system depends on sensory  experience in development",
journal="Neuropsychologia",
year="2020",
author="Stroh, Anna-Lena and Rösler, Frank and Röder, Brigitte",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="In hearing individuals, vestibular and visuo-spatial functions seem to be  functionally linked. Previous studies have suggested that congenitally deaf  individuals are at a higher risk for vestibular problems, which in hearing adults  have often been found to be associated with impairments in visuo-spatial processing. However, communicating in a signed language provides extensive practice in  visuo-spatial processing, which might counteract negative effects of vestibular  impairments. Here, we investigated whether the functional link between vestibular  and visuo-spatial functions is mandatory, that is whether it is impenetrable to  experience or context, or whether it is dependent on specific sensory and cognitive  experiences. To this end, we tested a group of congenitally deaf native signers and  a group of hearing nonsigners on mental rotation and balance tasks. Compared to  hearing nonsigners, mental rotation was superior in the deaf signers for conditions  crucial for sign language comprehension. By contrast, the balance performance of the  group of deaf signers was impaired. While in the group of hearing nonsigners,  balance skills correlated with mental rotation abilities, no such relationship was  observed in the group of deaf signers. These results suggest that the link between  vestibular and visuo-spatial functions is not fixed but can be altered or even  cancelled out by certain sensory or cognitive experiences, such as the acquisition  of a sign language.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0028-3932",
doi="10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107736",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107736"
}