Open angle glaucoma effects on preattentive visual search efficiency for flicker, motion displacement and orientation pop-out tasks
- 16 August 2007
- journal article
- Published by BMJ in British Journal of Ophthalmology
- Vol. 91 (11), 1493-1498
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo.2006.108084
Abstract
Background/aim: Preattentive visual search (PAVS) describes rapid and efficient retinal and neural processing capable of immediate target detection in the visual field. Damage to the nerve fibre layer or visual pathway might reduce the efficiency with which the visual system performs such analysis. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that patients with glaucoma are impaired on parallel search tasks, and that this would serve to distinguish glaucoma in early cases. Methods: Three groups of observers (glaucoma patients, suspect and normal individuals) were examined, using computer-generated flicker, orientation, and vertical motion displacement targets to assess PAVS efficiency. The task required rapid and accurate localisation of a singularity embedded in a field of 119 homogeneous distractors on either the left or right-hand side of a computer monitor. All subjects also completed a choice reaction time (CRT) task. Results: Independent sample T tests revealed PAVS efficiency to be significantly impaired in the glaucoma group compared with both normal and suspect individuals. Performance was impaired in all types of glaucoma tested. Analysis between normal and suspect individuals revealed a significant difference only for motion displacement response times. Similar analysis using a PAVS/CRT index confirmed the glaucoma findings but also showed statistically significant differences between suspect and normal individuals across all target types. Conclusions: A test of PAVS efficiency appears capable of differentiating early glaucoma from both normal and suspect cases. Analysis incorporating a PAVS/CRT index enhances the diagnostic capacity to differentiate normal from suspect cases.Keywords
This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- Effects of retinal image degradation on pre-attentive visual search (PAVS) efficiency for flicker, movement and orientation stimuliOphthalmic and Physiological Optics, 2006
- A failure of ‘Pop‐Out’ in visual search tasks in dementia with Lewy Bodies as compared to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseaseInternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2004
- Learning Pop-out Detection: Specificities to Stimulus CharacteristicsVision Research, 1996
- Localization and discrimination of “pop-out” targetsVision Research, 1996
- The role of features in preattentive vision: Comparison of orientation, motion and color cuesVision Research, 1993
- “Effortless” texture segmentation and “parallel” visual search are not the same thingVision Research, 1992
- Selective loss of pattern discrimination in early glaucomaApplied Optics, 1989
- Serial and parallel processing of visual feature conjunctionsNature, 1986
- A feature-integration theory of attentionCognitive Psychology, 1980
- A two-stage model of visual searchPerception & Psychophysics, 1979