Practice makes the deficiency of global motion detection in people with pattern-related visual stress more apparent

Pattern-related visual stress (PRVS) refers to the perceptual difficulties experienced by some individuals when exposed to high contrast striped patterns. People with PRVS were reported to have reduced sensitivity to global motion at baseline testing and the difference disappears at a second estimate. The present study was to investigate the effect of practice on global motion threshold in adults with and without PRVS.

A total of 101 subjects were recruited and the Wilkins & Evans Pattern Glare Test was used to determine if a subject had PRVS. The threshold to detect global motion was measured with a random dot kinematogram. Each subject was measured 5 times at the first visit and again a month later. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was applied to show the agreement between the two tests.

Twenty-nine subjects were classified as having PRVS and 72 were classified as normal. At baseline, the threshold to detect global motion was significantly higher in subjects with PRVS (0.832 ± 0.098 vs. 0.618 ± 0.228, p < 0.001). After 5 sessions, the difference between the normal and subjects with PRVS increased (0.767 ± 0.170 vs. 0.291 ± 0.149, p < 0.001). In ROC analysis, the area under the curve (AUC) improved from 0.792 at baseline to 0.964 at the fifth session. After a one-month break, the difference between normal and subjects with PRVS was still significant (0.843 ± 0.169 vs. 0.407 ± 0.216, p < 0.001) and the AUC was 0.875.

The ability to detect global motion is impaired in persons with PRVS and the difference increased after additional sessions of practice.