Abstract
Purpose :
To measure stereo vision in athletes before and after dichoptic binocular vision training
Methods :
In total, N=31 male and female tennis professionals aged from 14 to 53 years were trained performing at least seven dichoptic binocular vision training sessions using the c-DIGITAL VISION TRAINER® (patent pending). The minimum visual acuity was 0.8 at each eye. A single training session consisted of 192 stereoscopic tasks within 15 minutes. The sessions were repeated two times a week over at least five weeks. Every tennis professional completed at least 1602 stereoscopic tasks during the entire training period. c-DIGITAL VISION TRAINER® consists of a polarizing 3D- 4K monitor (60 Hz, resolution 3840 x 1080 pixel) presenting four rotating balls as stereoscopic stimuli, as one of the four balls was presented by a different horizontal disparity relatively to the other three balls. This ball appears closer to the athlete. The task was to select the closer ball by a controller. After finishing the single task a further quadrupel of balls was presented. The horizontal disparity difference of the ball to see by the athlete varied from 15 arcsec to 300 arcsec related to the other three balls. The disparity differences of 15, 30, 45, 60, 150 and 300 arcsec were tested 16 times within one session. The reaction time, the percentage of correct answers, and the gain of reaction time of stimuli with decreasing disparity difference were analyzed.
Results :
In all subjects the reaction time increased significantly with decreasing disparity difference of the stimuli within one session. The difference (gain) of reaction time of 45 arcsec- and 15 arcsec-stimuli was 230 ms at the begin and 105 ms at the end of the visual training period, meaning a significant improvement of gain by 54%. All subjects showed after the training period improvements in stereoscopic resolution, reaction time, and correctness of answers. The stereoscopic resolution improved by at least by 15 arcsecs in every subject. Regarding the 30 arcsecs-stimulus the mean correctness of answers increased significantly by +23%. The mean reaction time of 30 arcsec-stimuli shortened significantly from 1527 ms to 1295 ms (delta -15%).
Conclusions :
Dichoptic binocular vision training in ocular healthy athletes over six weeks improved stereo vision in respect to disparity threshold, reaction time, gain and percentage of correct answers.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.