Recovery of Stereopsis in Age-Related Macular Degeneration

描述(申请人提供)：老年性黄斑变性影响中心视力，损害高视力视觉功能。患有AMD的人抱怨在阅读、识别面孔和看电视等日常工作中遇到困难。最近的研究报告了眼手协调和抓取的困难，这与数据显示大多数AMD患者几乎没有深度知觉是一致的。当两只眼睛的视力丧失模式非常不同时，特别是当较强壮的一只眼睛决定双眼注视方向时，而不考虑另一只眼睛相应注视位置的功能状态时，立体视可能会受到损害。深度知觉的丧失不仅会影响需要眼手协调的任务，还会对行动能力和避障造成严重后果。在这项建议中，我们研究了通过鼓励AMD患者使用具有相似功能的双眼的注视位点来恢复AMD患者立体视的可能性。我们首先检查目标1中深度感知的潜力。这需要映射两只眼睛中剩余功能的区域，以确定外围是否有相应的点可以削弱深度感知。在目标2中，我们确定观察者是否能够结合来自两只眼睛的信息(立体视觉的必要前提)以及他们是否具有任何程度的深度知觉。在目标3中，我们检验了AMD患者能够使用不同的注视位点对不同的 任务。我们采取两种方法来鼓励观察者使用在两只眼睛中功能相同且位于相应位置的视网膜位置，这样它们就可以为深度感知提供基础。我们首先人为地将两只眼睛和所有观察者的视力丧失模式等同起来，以练习协调的眼球运动。然后，我们确定他们是否在眼-手协调任务中使用这些相应的注视位置，该任务受益于深度信息。如果注视位置的选择确实依赖于任务，我们预计这种做法 这两项任务将改善双眼的对应性，并可能导致立体视觉的恢复。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Age-related macular degeneration affects central vision and impairs high acuity visual function. Individuals with AMD complain about difficulty with everyday tasks such as reading, recognizing faces and watching television. More recent studies report difficulty with eye-hand coordination and grasping, consistent with data showing that the majority of individuals with AMD have little depth perception. Stereopsis can be impaired when the two eyes have very disparate patterns of vision loss, particularly when the stronger eye determines binocular gaze direction, without regard to the functional status of the corresponding fixation location in the other eye. Loss of depth perception not only impacts tasks requiring eye hand coordination, but it can have serious consequences for mobility and obstacle avoidance. In this proposal we examine the potential to restore stereopsis in individuals with AMD, by encouraging individuals to use fixation loci in the two eyes that have similar function. We start by examining the potential for depth perception in Aim 1. This requires mapping the regions of residual function in the two eyes to determine if there are corresponding points in the periphery that can subserve depth perception. In Aim 2 we determine whether observers are able to combine information from the two eyes (a necessary prerequisite for stereopsis) and whether they have any degree of depth perception. In Aim 3 we test the hypothesis that individuals with AMD are able to use different fixation loci for different tasks. We take two approaches to encourage observers to use retinal loci that are functionally equivalent and in corresponding locations in the two eyes, so they can provide a substrate for depth perception. We first artificially equate the pattern of vision loss in the two eyes and allo observers to practice coordinated eye movements. We then determine whether they use these corresponding fixation locations in an eye-hand coordination task that benefits from depth information. If indeed the choice of fixation location is task- dependent, we expect that practice with these two tasks will improve binocular correspondence and potentially lead to a recovery of stereopsis.