Contributed Session I: Adaptation to Prominent Monocular Metamorphopsia using Binocular Suppression

Abstract

45.1% of AMD patients perceive visual distortion or metamorphopsia in at least one of their eyes. These distortions pose severe impediment to reading, face recognition and visual search. Adaptation to these dysfunctions are generally preceded by development of significant visual loss. In this study we investigate how different levels of suppression accelerate this adaptation by simulating central, paracentral and cecocentral metamorphopsia monocularly, and then suppressing the resulting perception by overlaying a scotoma (completely black circle). Distortions with the same physical features are more noticeable when they are located centrally. Our results strongly confirm that binocular interactions allow for the complete suppression. Furthermore, we show that milder suppressions (50% area) takes considerably longer to adapt to, and the prominence of the scotoma remains relatively stable over time. The results further show that if the metamorphopsia is in the dominant eye, the effect of binocular compensation is diminished noticeably. Cecocentral metamorphopsia were generally adapted to with even mild suppression as their proximity to the physiological blind spot makes them particularly vulnerable to suppression.