title: Scene perception in age-related macular degeneration: Effect of spatial frequencies and contrast in residual vision.
abstract: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is characterized by a central vision loss. Here, we investigated the ability of AMD patients to process the spatial frequency content of scenes in their residual vision, depending of the luminance contrast level. AMD patients and normally-sighted elderly participants (controls) performed a categorization task involving large scenes (outdoors vs. indoors) filtered in low spatial frequencies (LSF), high spatial frequencies (HSF), and non-filtered scenes (NF). Luminance contrast of scenes was equalized between stimuli using a root-mean square (RMS) contrast normalization. In Experiment 1, we applied an RMS contrast of 0.1 (for luminance values between 0 and 1), a value situated between the mean contrast of LSF and HSF scenes in natural conditions. In Experiment 2, we applied an RMS contrast of 0.3, corresponding to the mean contrast of HSF scenes in natural conditions. In Experiment 3, we manipulated four levels of linearly-increasing RMS contrasts (0.05, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20) for HSF scenes only. Compared to controls, AMD patients gave more non-responses in the categorization of HSF than NF or LSF scenes, irrespective of the contrast level of scenes. Performances improved as contrast increased in HSF scenes. Controls were not differentially affected by the spatial frequency content of scenes. Overall, results suggest that LSF processing is well preserved in AMD patients and allows efficient scene categorization in their parafoveal residual vision. The HSF processing deficit could be partially restored by enhancing luminance contrast.
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, LPNC, F-38000 Grenoble, France. Electronic address: carole.peyrin@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peyrin
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, LPNC, F-38000 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramanoël
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, F-38000 Grenoble, France; CNRS, LPNC, F-38000 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Alexia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roux-Sibilon
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Perception, Université Paris-Descartes & CNRS, Paris, France; Unité Vision & Cognition, Fondation Ophtalmologique Rothschild, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chokron
authors.affiliation: Alpes Retine, F-38330 Montbonnot Saint Martin, France.
authors.forename: Ruxandra
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hera
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Aging; Central visual loss; Contrast normalization; Root-mean square; Scene categorization