Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine changes in fixation stability over time during binocular and monocular viewing in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Seventeen patients with AMD and 17 controls were enrolled. Using an EyeLink eyetracker (SR Research Ltd., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), fixation stability was recorded binocularly and monocularly with each eye for a duration of 15 s while the fellow eye was covered. Fixation stability was analyzed over 3 s intervals for each condition using a 68% bivariate contour ellipse area. Fixation stability did not change with time during binocular viewing for both groups, both monocular conditions for the control group, and monocular viewing with the better eye for the AMD group. However, during monocular viewing with the worse eye, the test of within-subject contrasts showed linear improvement in fixation stability with time (p = 0.016). In conclusion, in patients with AMD, monocular fixational control with the worse eye is poor, but improves with time.
Highlights
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) destroys central vision, but damages to the two eyes are often unequal, resulting in differences in monocular function
Using previously recorded eye-position data [20], we examined changes in fixation stability over time during monocular and binocular viewing in controls and in patients with AMD
We found that fixation stability does not change during consecutive time intervals of equal length during binocular and monocular viewing for controls and during binocular and monocular viewing with the better eye (BE) for patients
Summary
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) destroys central vision, but damages to the two eyes are often unequal, resulting in differences in monocular function. Patients with binocular inhibition show severe impairment in reading speed compared to those with central vision loss matched in visual acuity of the BE [4,5]. It appears that in these patients the worse eye (WE) has a heavy influence on binocular function by diminishing its performance. In addition to the degree of central retinal damage, visual performance is related to the ability of the ocular motor system to adapt to the loss of its reference position (i.e., the fovea). Patients with AMD use preferred retinal loci (PRLs) in the functional eccentric retina as their pseudo-foveae, but the choice of PRL location is involuntary and the mechanisms not fully understood [6,7,8,9,10,11]
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