Perceptual learning improves motion perception in patients with macular degeneration
Résumé
Maculopathies such as age-related macular degeneration or Stargardt’s disease are typically characterized by a progressive and irreversible loss of central vision which has a dramatic impact on the patients’ quality of life. A promising readaptation strategy for patients is to train their peripheral vision, which remains functional, in order to diminish their visual impairments. Here, we explore whether perceptual learning can improve patients’ ability to perceive motion that relies on both central and peripheral vision. Nine participants with either age-related macular degeneration or Stargardt’s disease (absolute scotoma in both eyes, aged between 50 and 81) performed 12 training sessions of about an hour and spread over 4 weeks. During each of these sessions, they had to report the motion direction (either upward or downward) of a translating pattern defined from dynamic random-dot kinematograms. All participants improved their performances with the training (mean improvement rate [(post-test result - pre-test result)/pre-test result]*100): 38.3 percent +/- 8.3 percent of standard error; p=0.0078, Wilcoxon test), which suggests that perceptual learning is efficient in this case.
In order to determine whether these effects can be generalized to untrained and more complex motion tasks, we investigated the performances of 6 of the patients on a multiple object tracking task, before and after the training. Analyses showed that tracking performances were also generally improved after the training (mean improvement rate: 7.4 percent +/- 4.5 percent of standard error).
These results suggest that perceptual learning is an effective tool to improve motion perception in patients with maculopathies and that the effects of training on a simple motion discrimination task might transfer to more complex tasks. Overall, these results open interesting perspectives for the development of effective readaptation strategies based on perceptual learning in maculopathy patients.
Domaines
Sciences cognitivesOrigine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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