title: Adaptation of eye-movements to simulated hemianopia in reading and visual exploration: Transfer or specificity?
abstract: Reading and visual exploration impairments in unilateral homonymous hemianopia are well-established clinical phenomena. Spontaneous adaptation of eye-movements to the visual field defect leads to improved reading and visual exploration performance. Yet, it is still unclear whether oculomotor adaptation to visual field loss is task-specific or whether there is a transfer of adaptation-related improvements between reading and visual exploration. We therefore simulated unilateral homonymous hemianopia in healthy participants and explored the specificity with which oculomotor adaptation to this pure visual-sensory dysfunction during uninstructed reading or visual exploration practice leads to improvements in both abilities. Our findings demonstrate that there is no transfer of adaptation-related changes of eye-movements and performance improvements between reading and visual exploration. Efficient oculomotor adaptation to visual field loss is highly specific and task-dependent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Durham, UK. susanne.schuett@durham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schuett
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Kentridge
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zihl
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Heywood
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006423:Hemianopsia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011932:Reading; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014163:Transfer, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult