[Effect of contact lenses and visual acuity on the registration of saccadic eye movements using an infrared...

In order to examine the influence of contact lenses and visual acuity on recordings of saccadic eye movements with the infrared reflection method, horizontal 20 and 30 degrees saccades were recorded with and without contact lenses in 16 subjects (32 eyes) usually wearing contact lenses. As far as the main parameters of the saccades (accuracy, peak velocity and duration) were concerned, the reliability of the measurements (recognizable through the mean values) was not essentially influenced by the contact lenses. The precision of the measurements (recognizable through the standard deviation) was with the contact lenses significantly but, for clinical use, not essentially worse. The velocity waveforms of the saccades, however, were considerably changed by contact lenses in some cases. This is why examinations, in which saccadic velocity waveforms are used for diagnosis, should be performed without contact lenses. Visual acuity had no measurable influence on the main parameters of the saccades. However, considerably more corrective saccades were observed with contact lenses than without. There were reasons to believe that not the contact lenses themselves, but better visual acuity was responsible for the larger number of corrective saccades.