Abstract
Purpose :
While driving, hazards might appear in the periphery. It is known that peripheral optical errors decrease peripheral contrast sensitivity. This study evaluates how the elevated peripheral optical errors affect hazard perception in the peripheral visual field.
Methods :
We evaluated hazard perception, as well as resolution acuity and contrast sensitivity in the 20° nasal visual field of 11 healthy eyes. Two optical conditions were tested with an adaptive optics vision simulator designed for peripheral vision evaluation: 1) Simulated average optical errors in 20° nasal visual field (-0.60 D in spherical equivalent, -0.50 D in cross-cylinder J0 and 0.09 µm horizontal coma for a 4 mm pupil); 2) Simulated elevated optical errors in 20° nasal visual field (-1.20 D in spherical equivalent, -1.45 D in cross-cylinder J0 and 0.09 µm horizontal coma for a 4 mm pupil). Peripheral resolution acuity and contrast sensitivity were evaluated with Gabor gratings. A hazard perception test was developed, wherein the subjects fixated foveally at a moving road scene while peripheral test stimuli were presented 20° nasally. The test stimuli consisted of hazards that were animals, and non-hazards that were plants and rocks. The subjects’ task was to respond when a hazard was seen. The test conditions were randomized, and each measurement was performed twice.
Results :
The elevated condition significantly reduced the peripheral grating resolution acuity and contrast sensitivity at 1 cycle per degree compared to the phakic condition: on average 0.08 logMAR and 0.25 logCS, respectively. In the hazard perception test, all subjects also showed worse performance with the elevated condition, resulted in increased false positives by 8 % and misses by 13 % together with 0.3 seconds longer reaction time.
Conclusions :
This study tested the visual and functional aspects of peripheral optical errors. Improving the peripheral optics increases resolution acuity, contrast and hazard perception in the nasal visual field. Therefore, reducing peripheral optical errors produces visual and functional improvements that may have safety implications.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.