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Scene perception in macular degeneration: the effect of contrast
Author(s) -
THI HA CHAU THC,
DESPRETZ P,
BOUCART M
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.2010.241.x
Subject(s) - contrast (vision) , visual acuity , medicine , categorization , macular degeneration , audiology , achromatic lens , luminance , lesion , ophthalmology , artificial intelligence , surgery , computer science , optics , physics
Purpose To access performance of AMD patients in an animal/non‐animal categorization task using achromatic natural scenes with large reductions in contrast, and to study the relation between visual acuity, lesion size and the performance of categorization. Methods Eighteen patients with neovascular AMD and visual acuity less than 20/50 were included. Seventeen age‐matched healthy subjects were used as controls. Complete ophthalmologic examination were performed in all participants. The stimuli were photographs of animal (targets) and natural scenes (distractors) , displayed on a screen, with four level of contrast N, N/2, N/4 and N/8. Participants were asked to press a key when they saw an animal. Accuracy, false alarms, correct rejections were recorded. Results Percentage of correct detections was lower in AMD patients compared to control. Larger decrease of performance was observed in AMD patients than in controls when the contrast condition was reduced. No correlation was found between performance and lesion size. Correlation was found between visual acuity and performance when contrast level was reduced to N/2, N/4 and N/8. Conclusion The results of the present study may be considered for adaptation of luminance and contrast in the environment of AMD subjects, in order to improve to improve their mobility and to prevent falls.