The Initial Progression of Physical and Perceptual Symptoms Associated With Aniseikonia.

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the initial progression of physical and perceptual symptoms associated with wearing spectacles that produce unequal retinal image sizes in the two eyes (aniseikonia).

Methods: A within-subjects experiment (n = 20) was conducted to assess how symptoms change over one hour. Participants wore spectacles that contained a minifying lens (4%) over one eye and a plano lens over the other.

How small changes to one eye's retinal image can transform the perceived shape of a very familiar object.

Vision can provide useful cues about the geometric properties of an object, like its size, distance, pose, and shape. But how the brain merges these properties into a complete sensory representation of a three-dimensional object is poorly understood. To address this gap, we investigated a visual illusion in which humans misperceive the shape of an object due to a small change in one eye's retinal image.

Perceptual Thresholds for Radial Optic Flow Distortion in Near-Eye Stereoscopic Displays.

We provide the first perceptual quantification of user's sensitivity to radial optic flow artifacts and demonstrate a promising approach for masking this optic flow artifact via blink suppression. Near-eye HMOs allow users to feel immersed in virtual environments by providing visual cues, like motion parallax and stereoscopy, that mimic how we view the physical world. However, these systems exhibit a variety of perceptual artifacts that can limit their usability and the user's sense of presence in VR.

The contribution of image minification to discomfort experienced in wearable optics.

Wearable optics have a broad range of uses, for example, in refractive spectacles and augmented/virtual reality devices. Despite the long-standing and widespread use of wearable optics in vision care and technology, user discomfort remains an enduring mystery. Some of this discomfort is thought to derive from optical image minification and magnification.

Reflexive Fusional Vergence and Its Plasticity Are Impaired in Convergence Insufficiency.

Purpose: We compared the adaptive capacities of reflexive fusional convergence and divergence in 10 participants with untreated convergence insufficiency (CI) to 10 age-matched binocularly normal controls (BNCs) in an effort to elucidate the functional basis of CI.

Methods: Vergence responses were monitored binocularly at 250 Hz using video-based infrared oculography, while single and double-step disparity stimuli were viewed dichoptically. The double-step stimuli were designed to induce an adaptive increase in the convergence or divergence reflexive fusional response dynamics.

A differential role for the posterior cerebellum in the adaptive control of convergence eye movements.

Introduction: The vergence oculomotor system possesses two robust adaptive mechanisms; a fast "dynamic" and a slow "tonic" system that are both vital for single, clear and comfortable binocular vision. The neural substrates underlying these vergence adaptive mechanisms in humans is unclear.

Methods: We investigated the role of the posterior cerebellum in convergence adaptation using inhibitory continuous theta-burst repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) within a double-blind, sham controlled design while eye movements were recorded at 250hz via infrared oculography.

Adaptation of reflexive fusional vergence is directionally biased.

Divergence is known to differ from convergence across a wide range of clinical parameters. We have postulated that a limited neural substrate results in reduced fusional divergence velocities and subsequently a reduced capacity to adapt tonic vergence to uncrossed disparities. We further investigated this hypothesis by characterizing the degree of plasticity in reflexive fusional vergence to repetitive end-point errors using a disparity-based double-step paradigm.

Asymmetries between convergence and divergence reveal tonic vergence is dependent upon phasic vergence function.

Horizontal vergence eye movements are controlled by two processes, phasic and slow-tonic. Slow-tonic responses are hypothesized to be stimulated by the faster, pulse-step neural output of the phasic system. This suggests that the general behavior of each system should be similar; however, this relationship has yet to be investigated directly.

Unmasking the linear behaviour of slow motor adaptation to prolonged convergence.

Adaptation to changing environmental demands is central to maintaining optimal motor system function. Current theories suggest that adaptation in both the skeletal-motor and oculomotor systems involves a combination of fast (reflexive) and slow (recalibration) mechanisms. Here we used the oculomotor vergence system as a model to investigate the mechanisms underlying slow motor adaptation.