Does Vertical Reading Help People with Macular Degeneration: An Exploratory Study

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Neuroscience
• Vision Science

Background:

• Macular degeneration often leads to the development of a Preferred Retinal Locus (PRL) to compensate for central vision loss.
• Individuals with a PRL located to the left of the scotoma may experience reading difficulties due to text occlusion.
• Vertical text orientation was hypothesized to mitigate this occlusion by presenting words tangentially to the scotoma.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if reading vertically oriented text is beneficial for individuals with macular degeneration and a left-sided PRL.
• To explore the potential of rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) for reading vertical text in this population.

Main Methods:

• An exploratory study trained individuals with macular degeneration and left PRLs to read text rotated 90° clockwise.
• Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) was used to present both vertical and horizontal text.
• Reading performance was assessed before and after training for both text orientations.

Main Results:

• Training improved reading performance with vertical text.
• However, the reading speeds achieved with vertical text did not significantly surpass those achieved with horizontal text after training.
• The hypothesis that vertical text would offer a reading advantage was not supported.

Conclusions:

• While training can improve reading of vertical text in individuals with macular degeneration and left PRLs, it does not lead to superior reading speeds compared to horizontal text.
• The proposed benefit of tangential presentation to the scotoma was not demonstrated in this study.
• Further research may be needed to explore alternative reading strategies for individuals with central vision loss.