New research has shown people who experience partial vision loss in early childhood struggle more with accurately judging sound location compared with those who lose their sight later in life.
The new study, led by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in collaboration with the University of East Anglia (UEA), is the first to compare how people with early (before the age of 10) and later onset vision loss judge the distance of sound.
The study, published in Optometry and Vision Sciences,1 involved 52 participants under 33 years old.
Each participant took part in 480 separate trials, which involved estimating the distance of sounds such as speech, music, and noise. The sounds were emitted from distances ranging from 1.2 m to 13.8 m away.
The differences in estimations between people with early and late onset vision loss, as well as a fully sighted control group, were greater for closer distances than for sounds coming from further away.
Compared to the control group, people with early-onset vision loss tended to judge that sounds played from close distances (up to 5 m) were actually coming from further away.
Distance judgements were not found to be significantly different between the control group and those with late-onset vision loss.
Lead author Professor Shahina Pardhan from ARU said the results suggest people who suffer vision loss at birth or in early childhood are more likely to struggle to accurately judge the distance of close-range sounds.2
“This is the first study of its kind and is important when assessing the healthcare needs of people who suffered partial vision loss early in life, such as at birth or in childhood, who tend to be reliant on their other sensory abilities.
“Clearly a difficulty in judging short and medium distance sounds could have safety implications, for example when attempting to cross the road.
“Hopefully, this study will add to evidence that will lead to solutions to improve the lives of people with vision loss across the world,” she said.
References
- Pardhan S, Raman, R, Andrew J, et al. Effect of early versus late onset of partial visual loss on judgments of auditory distance. Optometry and Vision Science 101(6):393-398, June 2024. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000002125.
- Anglia Ruskin University, Early vision loss linked with difficulty judging sounds (news release, 19 July 2024), available at: aru. ac.uk/news/early-vision-loss-linked-with-difficulty-judgingsounds [accessed 23 July 2024].
