Deaf adults see better than those who hear

SHEFFIELD, England, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- British researchers say those who are deaf have better peripheral vision as adults than hearing people.

Study leader Dr. Charlotte Codina at the University of Sheffield in England found adults born deaf react more quickly than hearing people to objects at the edge of their visual field. However, deaf children under age 10 had a slower reaction time to light stimuli in their peripheral vision than hearing children.

The study, published in Development Science, found at around age 11 hearing and deaf children react equally quickly. However, deaf adolescents ages 13-15 reacted more quickly than their hearing peers.

"Important vision changes are occurring as deaf children grow-up and one current theory is that they have not yet learnt to focus their attention on stimuli in the periphery until their vision matures at the age of 11 or 12," Codina says in a statement.

Codina and colleagues asked children -- their heads positioned in the center of grey acrylic hemisphere implanted with 96 LED lights -- to play a "computer game" where they "catch the star" by moving a joystick that verified the child saw the light. A hidden camera monitored eye movements.