Abstract
Purpose :
In three studies, we (1) characterized the reported difficulty of people with homonymous hemianopia while watching TV, (2) objectively measured the difficulty, and (3) propose and tested a novel rehabilitation aid.
Methods :
(1) We conducted a survey about watching TV and movies with subjects with normal vision (N=193) or hemianopia (N=93). (2) We measured the ability to follow the story in video clips in a subset from both groups (N=60, 20, respectively), using a novel information acquisition (IA) measure that uses natural language processing to objectively scoring the subject’s descriptions of the clips (ability to follow the story). (3) The IA of subjects with hemianopia (N=17) was compared when viewing the videos with or without a superimposed dynamic cue that we called a content guide (see figure 1B), calculated from the gaze of subjects with normal vision (figure 1A).
Results :
(1) Subjects with hemianopia were more likely to report difficulty watching TV, movies on a computer, and movies at the theater, and were less likely to take photographs or attend the theater, because of vision difficulties. (2) The hemianopia group had a significantly lower IA score, average 3.0, compared to 4.3 shared words of the normal-vision group (mixed-effects regression, z=4.52, p<0.001). (3) Presence of the content guide significantly increased the IA score by 0.54 shared words (z=4.67, p<0.001), and was higher in most (14/17) of the subjects with hemianopia.
Conclusions :
In addition to reporting difficulty, people with hemianopia have measurable difficulty viewing video and related tasks, and interventions like the content guide can provide benefit.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.