Eye Dominance and Testing Order Effects in the Circularly-Oriented Macular Pigment Optical Density Measurements

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Visual Neuroscience
• Biomedical Optics

Background:

• Structured light (SL) stimuli show potential for screening macular disorders.
• Circularly-oriented macular pigment optical density (coMPOD) may serve as a novel functional biomarker.
• Investigating factors like eye dominance and testing order is crucial for SL technology's clinical sensitivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the influence of eye dominance on structured light (SL) based stimulus perception.
• To assess the impact of testing order on SL-based stimulus perception.
• To determine the reliability of SL technology for potential macular health screening.

Main Methods:

• A psychophysical task involving SL-based entoptic images with rotating fringes was conducted on 28 participants.
• Retinal eccentricity of perceivable stimuli was measured by occluding central image areas.
• The coMPOD scale parameter (α-value) was calculated using a spatiotemporal sensitivity model.

Main Results:

• Mean α-values were consistent between dominant (0.11° ± 0.06°) and non-dominant (0.11° ± 0.05°) eyes.
• Testing order also showed minimal variation (first eye: 0.11° ± 0.05°; second eye: 0.10° ± 0.05°).
• High correlation (r=0.80, p<0.01) between factors and zero bias in Bland-Altman plots indicated reliability.

Conclusions:

• SL-based stimulus perception demonstrated repeatable measurements, unaffected by eye dominance or testing order.
• These findings support the potential clinical utility of SL tools for eye health assessment.
• The study lays groundwork for future research into SL technology as a diagnostic biomarker.