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Published on: April 11, 2025
Distance perception in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)
Kenneth J Ciuffreda1, Naveen K Yadav, Esther Han
1SUNY State College of Optometry, Departments of Vision Sciences and Clinical Sciences, 33 West 42nd Street, New York City, NY 10036, USA. kciuffreda@sunyopt.edu
Optometry (St. Louis, Mo.)
|December 13, 2012
Summary
Individuals with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) experience poor depth perception, but standard tests of distance perception and stereoacuity do not fully explain this symptom. The issue may stem from higher-level visual processing in the brain.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Vision Science
Background:
- Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can lead to subjective complaints of poor depth perception.
- Understanding the visual consequences of mTBI is crucial for diagnosis and rehabilitation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate distance perception and stereoacuity in individuals with mTBI reporting depth perception deficits.
- To compare visual performance between mTBI patients and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Assessed monocular and binocular distance perception using magnitude estimation.
- Measured stereoacuity at near and far distances.
- Administered a questionnaire on distance perception symptoms.
- Compared 10 mTBI patients with 10 healthy controls.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in distance perception response function slopes between groups.
- Slightly reduced stereoacuity in the mTBI group at near and distance.
- mTBI group reported moderate problematic levels of depth perception symptoms.
Conclusions:
- Reduced stereoacuity and distance perception function do not fully account for depth perception issues in mTBI.
- Poor depth perception in mTBI likely results from higher-level cortical processing deficits related to visuo-spatial mapping.
- The problem is not attributed to a simple binocular vergence issue.
