Audiovisual Integration after Late Monocular Enucleation

Abstract

People who underwent monocular enucleation, the surgical removal of one eye, exhibit altered sensory processing compared to people with binocular vision. Most research has focused on early monocular enucleation, which occurs during critical periods in visual development and leads to more balanced processing of audiovisual stimuli. I investigated whether audiovisual integration is altered after late monocular enucleation, which occurs after completed visual development. Susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion and the McGurk effect was compared between people who underwent late monocular enucleation and binocular viewing control participants. People who underwent late monocular enucleation were less susceptible to the sound-induced flash illusion but were susceptible to the McGurk effect, whereas control participants were susceptible to both. These findings suggest altered audiovisual integration for low-level audiovisual stimuli but unaltered audiovisual integration for high-level audiovisual speech stimuli. This may reflect compensatory adaptations and underscores the importance of timing in monocular enucleation research.