Vision Impairment Provides New Insight Into Self-Motion Perception.

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and glaucoma are leading causes of irreversible blindness.
• These conditions cause central and peripheral vision loss, respectively.
• Visual processing, particularly motion information crucial for self-motion perception, can be impaired even in early stages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how vision changes in AMD and glaucoma affect self-motion perception.
• To utilize head-mounted display virtual reality to simulate visual stimuli and assess responses.

Main Methods:

• Recruited participants with intermediate AMD or early manifest glaucoma and healthy controls.
• Assessed linear vection, spatial presence, and cybersickness using optic flow stimuli in virtual reality.
• Compared responses under passive (head stationary) and active (head sway) conditions.

Main Results:

• Participants with AMD (central vision loss) showed increased vection strength and spatial presence.
• Participants with glaucoma (peripheral vision loss) exhibited decreased vection strength and spatial presence.
• Both AMD and glaucoma groups reported less cybersickness than healthy controls.

Conclusions:

• Self-motion perception is differentially affected by central versus peripheral vision loss.
• Patients with AMD and glaucoma demonstrate opposing biases in processing visual cues for self-motion.