Assessing Spatial Processing Deficits in Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) Using Virtual Reality

项目摘要 本研究的目的是为了更好地描述和理解功能视觉加工。 大脑/皮质视力障碍(CVI)缺陷，是美国先天性视力丧失的主要原因 国家和发达国家。围产期发育中的视觉通路和结构受损导致 视觉空间处理能力，特别是在环境复杂性和注意力高度集中的情况下 要求。标准的临床评估和传统的心理物理刺激不能描述这些 由于缺乏生态学有效性而导致的功能性视力障碍。为了解决这一未得到满足的需求，我们有 开发了一种新型的基于虚拟现实(VR)的测试平台来评估视觉空间处理能力 接近真实世界情况的任务。在这项横断面行为研究中，儿童和 患有CVI的青少年将与年龄匹配的视力受损(OVI)患者以及 神经典型发展成视力正常的对照。使用记录的眼球跟踪指标，我们将表征视觉 在虚拟现实环境中的搜索性能和操纵刺激因素的影响。我们的中央 假设是，基于VR的评估将揭示视觉空间处理方面的障碍 以标准的临床评估为特点。在我们的第一个目标中，我们将比较视觉空间处理 使用两个基于VR的视觉搜索任务的能力。第一个是静态物体视觉搜索任务(虚拟玩具 盒子“)，参与者必须在其中搜索放置在一系列分心元件中的玩具(其他玩具)。这个 第二个是动态物体视觉搜索任务(虚拟走廊)，参与者必须在其中搜索 一所学校的校长，在一群干扰因素中(其他人在学校走廊上行走)。在这两个地方 通过改变周围干扰因素的数量来评估视觉搜索性能。 我们假设，与患有OVI和视力控制的人相比，CVI参与者将表现出更大的 作为与环境相关的视觉任务需求增加的函数的性能减退 复杂性。在第二个目标中，我们将使用 VR环境对空间处理能力的影响。我们假设，与基线表现相比， 当目标显著增强时，患有CVI的个体会表现出更好的表现，而操纵 总体目标显著程度降低和/或任务复杂性增加将与受损相关 性能。这项拟议的工作具有重要意义，因为它具有开发一部小说和 基于生态有效的虚拟现实平台，提供卓越的视觉功能缺陷评估 根据他们的视力障碍类型而定的个人。此外，这项调查将有助于奠定基础 为创造新的适应工具和战略而努力，这些工具和战略是为个人的特定发展而设计的 和康复需求。这对CVI患者具有特别重要的意义；这一群体已经 服务严重不足，尽管它很重要

Project Summary The objective of the proposed research is to better characterize and understand functional vision processing deficits in cerebral/cortical visual impairment (CVI), the leading cause of congenital vision loss in the United States and developed world. Perinatal damage to developing visual pathways and structures leads to impaired visual spatial processing abilities, particularly in the setting of high environmental complexity and attention demands. Standard clinical assessments and traditional psychophysical stimuli fail to characterize these functional vision deficits due to their lack of ecological validity. To address this unmet need, we have developed a novel virtual reality (VR) based testing platform to assess visual spatial processing abilities in tasks that approach real world situations. In this cross-sectional behavioral study, performance in children and adolescents with CVI will be compared to age-matched ocular visual impaired (OVI) individuals as well as neuro-typical developed sighted controls. Using recorded eye tracking metrics, we will characterize visual search performance and the effect of manipulating stimulus factors in the VR environment. Our central hypothesis is that VR based assessment will reveal impairments in visual spatial processing that are not characterized by standard clinical assessments. In our first aim, we will compare visual spatial processing abilities using two VR based visual search tasks. The first is a static object visual search task (the “virtual toy box”) in which participants must search for a toy positioned in an array of distractor elements (other toys). The second is a dynamic object visual search task (the “virtual corridor”) in which participants must search for the principal of a school in a crowd of distractor elements (other individuals walking in a school corridor). In both tasks, visual search performance will be assessed by varying the number of surrounding distractor elements. We hypothesize that in contrast to individuals with OVI and sighted controls, CVI participants will show greater impairment in performance as a function of increasing visual task demands associated with environmental complexity. In the second aim, we will characterize the effect of manipulating environmental factors using the VR environment on spatial processing abilities. We hypothesize that compared to baseline performance, individuals with CVI will reveal improved performance when target saliency is enhanced, while manipulations that decrease overall target saliency and/or increase task complexity will be associated with impaired performance. The proposed work is of great significance given the potential for developing a novel and ecologically valid VR based platform that provides for superior assessment of visual functional deficits in individuals based on their type of visual impairment. Furthermore, this investigation will help lay the ground work for the creation of new adaptive tools and strategies designed for an individual's specific developmental and rehabilitative needs. This is of particular significance for individuals with CVI; a population that has been greatly underserved despite its important