Preuves comportementales de capacités olfactives améliorées chez les personnes sourdes
Sensory deprivation, and particularly hearing impairment, is an excellent theoretical model for studying the phenomena of neuroplasticity in the human brain, as well as the adaptive behaviors available in order to support the daily lives of individuals deprived of a sensory modality. To adapt to their handicap, deaf individuals rely daily on their other senses that have remained intact. Evidence from literature has consistently supported superior visual and tactile performance in congenitally deep deaf individuals. In this study, we explored complete olfactory skills in congenitally deaf individuals. For this, we evaluated the olfactory capacities of 11 congenitally deaf individuals through psychophysical tasks relating to the processes of detection, identification, discrimination and localization of odors, in comparison with 11 hearing individuals. The Sniffin’Sticks test and an olfactometer were used to identify potential differences in olfactory performance between the two groups. The results demonstrated that hearing deprivation leads to superior performance in terms of olfactory modality in congenitally deaf individuals compared to hearing individuals.
Olfaction Adaptation Congenital Deaf Neuroplasticity Sensory Deprivation