Adaptive strategies for reading with a forced retinal location

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Neuroscience
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Macular degeneration (MD) impairs central vision, necessitating alternative reading strategies.
• Understanding parafoveal visual field capabilities is crucial for developing compensatory reading methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the optimal parafoveal retinal location for reading in normal-sighted individuals, simulating early macular degeneration.
• To analyze oculomotor behavior and its relationship with reading performance at different retinal locations.

Main Methods:

• Normal-sighted participants read text using a forced parafoveal retinal location.
• Reading performance and gaze behavior were assessed for regions to the right, left, and below fixation.
• Oculomotor parameters including saccade count, fixation duration, and saccade amplitude were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Reading performance and natural gaze behavior were best when using a retinal region to the right of fixation.
• Reading was severely impaired when using regions to the left or below fixation.
• Practice led to more forward saccades and shorter fixations, without changes in saccade amplitude.

Conclusions:

• The interplay of attention and eye movements explains performance differences across retinal locations.
• Training MD patients to utilize a retinal area to the right of their central scotoma is recommended for improved reading.