16
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      A New Visual Stimulation Program for Improving Visual Acuity in Children with Visual Impairment: A Pilot Study

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of visual rehabilitation of a computer-based visual stimulation (VS) program combining checkerboard pattern reversal (passive stimulation) with oddball stimuli (attentional modulation) for improving the visual acuity (VA) of visually impaired (VI) children and children with amblyopia and additional developmental problems. Six children (three females, three males; mean age = 3.9 ± 2.3 years) with impaired VA caused by deficits along the anterior and/or posterior visual pathways were recruited. Participants received eight rounds of VS training (two rounds per week) of at least eight sessions per round. Each session consisted of stimulation with 200 or 300 pattern reversals. Assessments of VA (assessed with the Lea symbol VA test or Teller VA cards), visual evoked potential (VEP), and functional vision (assessed with the Chinese-version Functional Vision Questionnaire, FVQ) were carried out before and after the VS program. Significant gains in VA were found after the VS training [VA = 1.05 logMAR ± 0.80 to 0.61 logMAR ± 0.53, Z = –2.20, asymptotic significance (2-tailed) = 0.028]. No significant changes were observed in the FVQ assessment [92.8 ± 12.6 to 100.8 ± SD = 15.4, Z = –1.46, asymptotic significance (2-tailed) = 0.144]. VEP measurement showed improvement in P100 latency and amplitude or integration of the waveform in two participants. Our results indicate that a computer-based VS program with passive checkerboard stimulation, oddball stimulus design, and interesting auditory feedback could be considered as a potential intervention option to improve the VA of a wide age range of VI children and children with impaired VA combined with other neurological disorders.

          Related collections

          Most cited references24

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          The human visual cortex.

          The discovery and analysis of cortical visual areas is a major accomplishment of visual neuroscience. In the past decade the use of noninvasive functional imaging, particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has dramatically increased our detailed knowledge of the functional organization of the human visual cortex and its relation to visual perception. The fMRI method offers a major advantage over other techniques applied in neuroscience by providing a large-scale neuroanatomical perspective that stems from its ability to image the entire brain essentially at once. This bird's eye view has the potential to reveal large-scale principles within the very complex plethora of visual areas. Thus, it could arrange the entire constellation of human visual areas in a unified functional organizational framework. Here we review recent findings and methods employed to uncover the functional properties of the human visual cortex focusing on two themes: functional specialization and hierarchical processing.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Resolving the clinical acuity categories "hand motion" and "counting fingers" using the Freiburg Visual Acuity Test (FrACT).

            The Freiburg Visual Acuity Test (FrACT) has been suggested as a promising test for quantifying the visual acuity (VA) of patients with very low vision, a condition often classified using the semi-quantitative clinical scale "counting fingers" (CF), "hand motion" (HM), "light perception" (LP) and "no light perception". The present study was designed to assess FrACT performance in a sizable number of CF, HM, and LP patients in order to generate a setting for future clinical studies in the low vision range. We examined a total of 41 patients (LP, n = 11; CF, n = 15; HM, n = 15) with various eye diseases (e.g., diabetic retinopathy, ARMD), covering the clinical VA scale from LP to CF. The FrACT optotypes were presented at a distance of 50 cm on a 17-inch LCD monitor with four random orientations. After training, two FrACT measurements (test and retest) were taken, each comprising 30 trials. FrACT measures reproducibly the VA of CF and HM patients. In CF patients, FrACT resulted in a mean logMAR = 1.98 +/- 0.24 (corresponding to a decimal VA of 0.010), for HM in a mean logMAR = 2.28 +/- 0.15 (corresponding to a decimal VA of 0.0052). In all LP patients the FrACT values were close to what would be obtained by random guessing. The mean test-retest 95% confidence interval was 0.21 logMAR for CF patients and 0.31 logMAR for HM respectively. Test-retest variability declined from 24 to 30 trials, showing that at least 30 trials are necessary. FrACT can reproducibly quantify VA in the CF and HM range. We observed a floor effect for LP, and it was not quantifiable further. Quantitative VA measures are thus obtainable in the very low-vision range using FrACT.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Neuropsychology and neuropharmacology of P3a and P3b.

              Perspectives on the P300 event-related brain potential (ERP) are reviewed by outlining the distinction between the P3a and P3b subcomponents. The critical factor for eliciting P3a is how target/standard discrimination difficulty rather than novelty modulates task processing. The neural loci of P3a and P3b generation are sketched and a theoretical model is developed. P3a originates from stimulus-driven disruption of frontal attention engagement during task processing. P3b originates when temporal-parietal mechanisms process the stimulus information for memory storage. The neuropharmacological implications of this view are then outlined by evaluating how acute and chronic use of ethanol, marijuana, and nicotine affect P3a and P3b. The findings suggest that the circuit underlying ERP generation is influenced in a different ways for acute intake and varies between chronic use levels across drugs. Theoretical implications are assessed.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Hum Neurosci
                Front Hum Neurosci
                Front. Hum. Neurosci.
                Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1662-5161
                18 April 2016
                2016
                : 10
                : 157
                Affiliations
                [1] 1School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University Taipei, Taiwan
                [2] 2Occupational Therapy-Low Vision Rehabilitation, University of Alabama, Birmingham AL, USA
                [3] 3Section of Dementia and Cognitive Impairment, Department of Neurology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Linkou, Taiwan
                [4] 4Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, Taipei Medical University Taipei, Taiwan
                [5] 5School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University Taipei, Taiwan
                [6] 6Stroke Center and Department of Neurology, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation New Taipei City, Taiwan
                Author notes

                Edited by: Michael A. Silver, University of California, Berkeley, USA

                Reviewed by: Elvire Vaucher, Université de Montréal, Canada; Frouke Nienke Boonstra, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands

                *Correspondence: Yu-Chin Su, hermessu828@ 123456gmail.com

                These authors have contributed equally to this work.

                Article
                10.3389/fnhum.2016.00157
                4834310
                27148014
                2ebf8c60-d035-4d84-96a7-013e2bddc273
                Copyright © 2016 Tsai, Hsu, Wu, Chen and Su.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 20 August 2015
                : 29 March 2016
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 2, Equations: 1, References: 32, Pages: 10, Words: 0
                Categories
                Neuroscience
                Original Research

                Neurosciences
                visual impairment,visual acuity,visual rehabilitation,visual stimulation,visual perceptual learning,attentional modulation,visual evoked potential

                Comments

                Comment on this article