Use of scrolled text in a scanning laser ophthalmoscope to assess reading performance at different retinal locations

A new technique is described for assessing reading performance using a scanning laser ophthalmoscope. Letters of different sizes and contrasts were projected onto specific retinal locations of normal and low vision observers. Successive letters were scrolled in a horizontal direction at different speeds through a 'window'. Throughout the experiments the subjects' fundus and the retinal location of the stimuli could be visualized. With this scanning laser ophthalmoscope text-scrolling computer program the subject does not search for adjacent letters, and because the eye is held relatively stationary the tedious eye movement analysis incurred in other studies is reduced. Five retinal areas were investigated in two normal observers. The percentage of letters correctly identified decreased with eccentricity, increased velocity of the text and reduced text contrast. The reading performance of two patients, one with age-related macular degeneration and the other with juvenile macular disease, was investigated. Decrements in performance were related to morphology of the lesions.