Functional consequences of decreasing vision: Efficiency of visual information processing in retinal disorders * an exploratory study.

Efficient visual information processing is crucial in daily life. For example,
mistakes due to a slow or incorrect interpretation of a traffic situation can
have fatal consequences. In addition, current technology and media ask for the
ability to quickly extract relevant information and ignore irrelevant
information. This is even more evident when vision is damaged, for example due
to a retinal disease. Current ophthalmological examinations however mainly
focus on anatomical changes of the eye and visual functioning in terms of
visual acuity and visual field. The efficiency of visual information processing
by patients is largely neglected. As a result, problems experienced by patients
may be unexplained or underestimated. In this project we study the efficiency
of visual information usage in patients with retinal disorders using
psychophysics.

To study the efficiency of visual information processing in patients with
retinal disorders.

observatory

We study consequences of patients with retinal diseases using psychophysics.
Unless available from their medical files or self-report, we will perform some
extra examinations to measure disease severity or disease specific factors that
can influence study parameters. Furthermore, questionnaires will be used to
measure visual quality of life. The complete experiment will take a few hours
only including breaks.
Patients do not benefit directly from participating in this project. It does
however contribute to knowledge of the efficiency of visual information
processing in patients with retinal disorders and the consequences on their
daily lives.