Gains following perceptual learning are closely linked to the initial visual acuity.

Oren Yehezkel,Anna Sterkin,Uri Polat,Dennis M Levi,Maria Lev

doi:10.1038/srep25188

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the dependence of perceptual learning gains on initial visual acuity (VA), in a large sample of subjects with a wide range of VAs. A large sample of normally sighted and presbyopic subjects (N = 119; aged 40 to 63) with a wide range of uncorrected near visual acuities (VA, −0.12 to 0.8 LogMAR), underwent perceptual learning. Training consisted of detecting briefly presented Gabor stimuli under spatial and temporal masking conditions. Consistent with previous findings, perceptual learning induced a significant improvement in near VA and reading speed under conditions of limited exposure duration. Our results show that the improvements in VA and reading speed observed following perceptual learning are closely linked to the initial VA, with only a minor fraction of the observed improvement that may be attributed to the additional sessions performed by those with the worse VA.

Highlights

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the dependence of perceptual learning gains on initial visual acuity (VA), in a large sample of subjects with a wide range of VAs
Consistent with earlier findings[4,6,8,27], perceptual learning induced a significant improvement in near VA, proportional to the initial VA, with higher gains observed for more advanced presbyopia
Consistent with earlier findings[4,6,8,27], perceptual learning induced a significant improvement in near VA, which was dependent on initial VA, with higher gains observed for those with poorer initial VA and more advanced presbyopia

Summary

Introduction

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the dependence of perceptual learning gains on initial visual acuity (VA), in a large sample of subjects with a wide range of VAs. Visual performance on a variety of tasks benefits from practice, in both young[6,8,11] and older adults[4,8,12,13,14], resulting in long-term improvements These long-term effects of repeated practice on a demanding task are termed perceptual learning, for recent reviews, see[15,16,17]. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the dependency of perceptual learning gains on initial VA, in a large sample of subjects with a wide range of VAs. In uncorrected presbyopia, it is widely acknowledged that the main challenge is in reading small fonts that are beyond the functional reading acuity under the conditions of blur and illumination associated with it. The MNREAD chart[41] provides information relating to the www.nature.com/scientificreports/

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