Abstract
Purpose :
Previous studies have reported visual perception improvements in the space around an observer’s hands in normally-sighted participants. We examined whether similar benefits, using tactile meta-guidance, occur in peripheral vision of patients with central vision loss (CVL) across a range of visual functions.
Methods :
We tested the effect in three groups of 8 individuals: CVL (median age: 63 years, ±16σ), age-matched controls (63±6σ), and young controls (24±1σ). Inclusion criteria- CVL: acuity of 20/300 or better in the better seeing eye and bilateral central scotomas verified by microperimetry; age-matched and young controls; acuity of 20/20 in the better seeing eye and no comorbidities. FInD (Foraging Interactive D-prime) psychophysics were deployed to measure detection thresholds for contrast, color, motion coherence, pattern coherence, and threshold-versus-contrast. Each of three charts contained a 4*4 grid of 6° cells, a random subset of which contained stimuli of varying signal intensity, ranging from easy to difficult levels, and updated by an adaptive algorithm using the observer’s responses on previous charts. Participants completed 2 sessions in random order, either with or without touching with the left hand's index finger each cell before moving on to the next cell. Planned pairwise comparison t-tests were used to test within group differences with and without meta-guidance for each visual function. Analysis-of-variance models were used to compare groups and condition results for each visual function.
Results :
A significant effect of visual impairment for all visual functions was found, however tactile meta-guidance did not significantly improve any of the investigated visual functions.
Conclusions :
FInD psychophysics successfully detected deficits across a range of visual functions in people with CVL. The investigated visual functions showed deficits in CVL patients compared to control groups that are not improved by tactile meta-guidance. Future directions could explore the relationship of meta-guidance on fixation stability. However, these preliminary results suggest that tactile meta-guidance may not be an effective low vision rehabilitation strategy.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.