Face Recognition Characteristics in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration Determined Using a Virtual Reality...

Face recognition is one of the most serious disabilities of patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Our purpose was to study face recognition using a novel method incorporating virtual reality (VR) and eye tracking.

Eighteen patients with AMD (seven male; median age 83 years; 89% with bilateral advanced AMD) and nineteen healthy controls (five male; median age 68 years) underwent the face recognition test IC FACES (Synthesius, Ljubljna, Slovenia) on a VR headset with built-in eye tracking sensors. Analysis included recognition accuracy, recognition time and fixation patterns. Additionally, a screening test for dementia and imaging with fundus autofluorescence and optical coherence tomography was performed.

AMD patients had significantly lower face recognition accuracy (42% vs. 92%; p < 0.001) and longer recognition time (median 4.0 vs. 2.0 s; p < 0.001) in comparison to controls. Both parameters were significantly worse in patients with lower visual acuity. In both groups, eye-tracking data revealed the two classical characteristics of the face recognition process, i.e., fixations clustering mainly in the nose-eyes-mouth triangle and starting observation in the nasal area.

The study demonstrates usability of a VR headset with eye tracking for studying visual perception in real-world situations which could be applicable in the design of clinical studies.