The visual performance test: indications for compensational visual rehabilitation training and first results

The visual performance test (Dannheim & Verlohr, 2007) measures the time required to find an object within the visual field. Black icons of high contrast are superimposed on a scenic background of low contrast in one of 11 positions in random order. The subject's task is to find the search icon on the CRT screen as rapidly as possible. This test was administered binocularly in 38 patients with homonymous visual field defects. The aim of the test was to identify those patients who had not adapted themselves to their visual handicap, and to quantify the effect, in these patients, of training of compensational search saccades (Meienberg et al., 1981; Nelles et al., 2001; Trauzettel-Klosinski, 2004). The results show that the visual performance test reflects the practical abilities of these patients and that it may monitor the benefit of visual rehabilitation training in patients with functional restrictions in daily life.