Optimising reaction-time analysis in eye movement perimetry using pooled promptness distributions

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Neuroscience
• Psychophysics

Background:

• Reaction-time measurements are vital for cognitive and sensory processing.
• Traditional reaction-time data is right-skewed, complicating statistical analysis.
• Eye-movement perimetry (EMP) uses reaction times for glaucoma detection, but sparse data poses challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if pooling promptness (reciprocal reaction time) across visual field locations maintains normality for robust parameter estimation in EMP.
• To assess the efficiency of promptness-based metrics for visual function assessment with sparse data.

Main Methods:

• Applied the reciprocal transformation (promptness) to reaction times.
• Investigated pooling promptness across different visual field locations.
• Analyzed the normality and parameter estimation of pooled promptness distributions in normal and glaucomatous vision.

Main Results:

• Pooled promptness distributions generally retain normal-like properties in both normal vision and glaucoma.
• Efficient estimation of key distribution parameters (mean, standard deviation) is possible with minimal repetitions.
• Promptness-based metrics enable compact and interpretable indices for EMP, even with sparse data.

Conclusions:

• Promptness transformation and pooling across visual field locations offer a statistically robust method for analyzing EMP data.
• This approach enhances the efficiency and applicability of EMP in clinical and research settings by reducing data collection demands.
• Promptness-based metrics show potential as clinically relevant summary indices for visual function assessment.