[EYEMOVE. Standardized assessment and treatment of visual search disorders]

Disorders of visual search by coordinated eye and head movements are frequently encountered in patients with brain damage. Homonymous visual field disorders, impaired elementary visual capacities (e.g. acuity, contrast sensitivity, convergent fusion, oculomotor disorders), visual neglect, Balint-Holmes syndrome or dementia (e.g. Alzheimer's disease) are the most frequent causes of such disorders. Efficient visual search is necessary to select salient stimuli and bring them onto the fovea in order to perform an in-depth analysis. Visual search is not only an indispensible capacity for visual activities in vocational and private life but is also important for many motor and cognitive abilities such as reaching, grasping, standing, spatial perception, route navigation as well as mobility. Despite this importance no comprehensive system exists for the standardized assessment and treatment of visual search disorders in the German-speaking area. In this article, we describe the basic properties of such a system (EYEMOVE). After a short survey of the main causes of visual search disorders following brain damage, the diagnostic facilities, normative data as well as a variety of treatment techniques of this novel system are described. Selected results from on-going clinical studies highlight the practicability and effectiveness of this novel system which contributes to a better management of visual search disorders in neuro-visual rehabilitation.