No Colavita effect: Increasing temporal load maintains equal auditory and visual processing in people with one eye

Abstract

We investigate whether the loss of one eye leads to enhanced multisensory processing. Previously, we measured discrimination of auditory, visual and audiovisual targets in people with one eye compared to controls viewing binocularly or with one eye patched. Both control groups demonstrated typical visual dominance (the Colavita effect) whereas people with one eye show no Colavita effect, and instead show equal preference for visual and auditory stimuli. Here, we loaded temporal processing in an attempt to favour audition and thereby reverse Colavita visual dominance with a modified repetition blindness paradigm. The Colavita effect was reduced for controls however, people with one eye continued to show no Colavita effect, reversed or otherwise. People with one eye display equal auditory and visual processing in this context, suggesting unbiased multisensory processing, likely as a form of cross-modal adaptation and compensation for their loss of binocularity.