De Lestrange-Anginieur Elie, Pan Feng, Thompson Benjamin, Wong Kin Yau
School of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Centre for Myopia Research, School of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Front Neurosci. 2025 May 23;19:1593463. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1593463. eCollection 2025.
Refractive errors represent an important cause of visual impairment, impacting the quality of vision in billions of people across the globe. Degraded visual input may cause individuals with refractive errors to deploy greater attentional resources during visual tasks. We tested the hypothesis that myopia alters the pattern of visual attention.
Twenty participants (10 near-emmetropes) performed an acuity discrimination task at random visual field locations (eccentricity range: 1-10°; spacing: 1°; polar coordinates of 0°, 90°, 180°or 270°) under conditions of neutral attention (no information on the stimulus position) and focused attention (target presentation in a single meridian), while fully optically corrected. The spatial distribution of attention-related modulation was estimated by the ratio of performance between the focused and neutral conditions across spatial eccentricities using acuity resolution (primary outcome) and reaction times (RT), as measures of attention.
Use of linear mixed models revealed that the enhancing effect of attention follows a cubic spatial profile for acuity and RT, indicating a finite attentional window in myopes and emmetropes with a peak eccentricity at around 4°. Significant dependence of attention modulation on polar coordinate and refractive status was also identified (for both acuity and RT), with larger attention enhancement at the South position, compared to the North location, and lower attention efficiency in myopes, as compared to emmetropes across the visual field. Our modeling of attention-related modulation in acuity further indicated that myopes experience narrower attentional windows, suggesting a reallocation of cognitive resources.
The study is the first, to our knowledge, to provide a detailed spatial profile of attention-related modulation linked to mild to regular myopia, highlighting a differential shape of the focus of attention with refractive status, which demonstrates a redistribution of attention with myopia. This revealed a link between myopia and visual attention, which requires further investigation.
屈光不正代表视力损害的一个重要原因，影响着全球数十亿人的视觉质量。视觉输入的退化可能导致屈光不正患者在视觉任务中部署更多的注意力资源。我们检验了近视会改变视觉注意力模式这一假设。
20名参与者（10名轻度正视眼者）在完全光学矫正的情况下，于中性注意力（无刺激位置信息）和集中注意力（在单个子午线方向呈现目标）条件下，在随机视野位置（离心率范围：1 - 10°；间距：1°；极坐标为0°、90°、180°或270°）执行视力辨别任务。使用视力分辨率（主要结果）和反应时间（RT）作为注意力的衡量指标，通过计算不同空间离心率下集中注意力与中性注意力条件下的表现比值，来估计注意力相关调制的空间分布。
线性混合模型的使用表明，对于视力和反应时间而言，注意力的增强效应遵循三次方空间分布，这表明近视者和正视眼者存在一个有限的注意力窗口，其峰值离心率约为4°。还确定了注意力调制对极坐标和屈光状态有显著依赖性（对于视力和反应时间均如此），与北方位置相比，南方位置的注意力增强更大，并且与正视眼者相比，近视者在整个视野中的注意力效率更低。我们对视力中注意力相关调制的建模进一步表明，近视者的注意力窗口更窄，这表明认知资源的重新分配。
据我们所知，该研究首次提供了与轻度至中度近视相关的注意力相关调制的详细空间分布，突出了注意力焦点随屈光状态的不同形状，这表明近视会导致注意力的重新分配。这揭示了近视与视觉注意力之间的联系，需要进一步研究。
