The aim of this work was to measure contrast sensitivity curves in 10 hearing children and 10 children with prelingual deafness (from 7 to 12 years old), using concentric circular patterns with radial frequencies (rCSF) of 0.25-2.0 cpd at low levels of luminance (0.7 cd/m²). All participants were free from identifiable ocular disease and had normal visual acuity. The rCSF was measured with the psychophysical forced-choice method. The results showed maximum sensitivity in the frequency range of 0.25 cpd for the two groups. The results showed yet significant differences between the rCSF of deaf and hearing children. That is, hearing children needed less contrast than deaf children to detect radial frequencies. These results suggest that at low levels of luminance the rCSF of hearing children was better than the rCSF of children with prelingual deafness.
contrast visual perception; plasticity; deaf children; radial frequency; forced-choice method
