Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
J Vis. 2022 Jul 11;22(8):10. doi: 10.1167/jov.22.8.10.
Visual crowding is the inability to recognize a target object in clutter. Previous studies have shown an increase in crowding in both parafoveal and peripheral vision in normal aging and glaucoma. Here, we ask whether there is any increase in foveal crowding in both normal aging and glaucomatous vision. Twenty-four patients with glaucoma and 24 age-matched normally sighted controls (mean age = 65 ± 7 vs. 60 ± 8 years old) participated in this study. For each subject, we measured the extent of foveal crowding using Pelli's foveal crowding paradigm (2016). We found that the average crowding zone was 0.061 degrees for glaucoma and 0.056 degrees for age-matched normal vision, respectively. These values fall into the range of foveal crowding zones (0.0125 degrees to 0.1 degrees) observed in young normal vision. We, however, did not find any evidence supporting increased foveal crowding in glaucoma (p = 0.375), at least in the early to moderate stages of glaucoma. In the light of previous studies on foveal crowding in normal young vision, we did not find any evidence supporting age-related changes in foveal crowding. Even if there is any, the effect appears to be rather inconsequential. Taken together, our findings suggest unlike parafoveal or peripheral crowding (2 degrees, 4 degrees, 8 degrees, and 10 degrees eccentricities), foveal crowding (<0.25 degrees eccentricity) appears to be less vulnerable to normal aging or moderate glaucomatous damage.
视觉拥挤是指在杂乱环境中无法识别目标物体的能力。先前的研究表明，在正常衰老和青光眼患者中，周边和旁中心视野的拥挤程度均有所增加。在此，我们探讨了在正常衰老和青光眼患者中，中心凹拥挤是否会增加。24 名青光眼患者和 24 名年龄匹配的正常视力对照者（平均年龄=65±7 岁 vs. 60±8 岁）参与了本研究。对于每个受试者，我们使用 Pelli 的中心凹拥挤范式（2016）测量了中心凹拥挤的程度。我们发现，青光眼患者的平均拥挤区为 0.061 度，年龄匹配的正常视力者为 0.056 度。这些值落在年轻正常视力者观察到的中心凹拥挤区（0.0125 度至 0.1 度）范围内。然而，我们没有发现任何证据表明青光眼患者存在中心凹拥挤增加（p=0.375），至少在青光眼的早期和中期阶段没有。根据先前关于年轻正常视力者中心凹拥挤的研究，我们没有发现任何证据支持中心凹拥挤随年龄变化。即使存在这种变化，其影响似乎也微不足道。总之，我们的研究结果表明，与旁中心或周边拥挤（2 度、4 度、8 度和 10 度偏心率）不同，中心凹拥挤（<0.25 度偏心率）似乎不易受到正常衰老或中度青光眼损伤的影响。
