Cite as:
Alcalá-Quintana R, Woods R L, Giorgi R G, Peli E, 2011, "Lateral interactions in people with central visual field loss" Perception 40 ECVP Abstract Supplement, page 123
Lateral interactions in people with central visual field loss
R Alcalá-Quintana, R L Woods, R G Giorgi, E Peli
Recent studies have reported that collinear flanking stimuli broaden the psychometric function and lower contrast detection thresholds in normally-sighted observers. The effect on detection thresholds is stronger in the fovea, although some facilitation has also been reported in the near periphery. In this study, we examined lateral interactions in people with central field loss (CFL) who had developed a stable preferred retinal locus (PRL), to investigate whether the consistent use of a PRL altered lateral interactions in the near periphery.Ten CFL patients and nine aged-matched, normally-sighted observers performed a contrast detection experiment with a target Gabor patch presented either alone or flanked by two identical patches. Psychometric functions were measured at the PRL for CFL patients and at a range of eccentricities for normally-sighted observers. Our results show that the presence of flankers systematically broadened the psychometric functions of CFL patients but effects on detection thresholds were slight and inconsistent across subjects. Similar results were obtained in normally-sighted observers at similar eccentricities, suggesting that prolonged use of a PRL does not produce lateral interactions that differ from the near peripheral retina of healthy eyes.
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