The Uses of Vision Data in Selecting Players for the Major League Baseball Draft.

Significance: This report illustrates the potential uses of vision data in helping teams select players during the draft.

Purpose: Visual performance has gradually gained recognition in baseball as a tool that can optimize on-field performance. It also may be useful in player development programs that gradually move players toward the major league.

The Effect of Visual Function on the Batting Performance of Professional Baseball Players.

This report evaluates the role of the combined visual abilities of acuity, contrast sensitivity and presentation time on plate discipline and baseball batting performance. A visual function test (EVTS) was performed on 585 professional baseball players. The results were compared to several common plate-discipline measures.

Bilateral Acquired Progressive Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Myelination.

The authors present the multimodal imaging findings of an unusual case of bilateral acquired progressive myelination of the optic disc during a 10-year follow-up period in a hyperopic adolescent patient in the absence of an underlying ocular or systemic abnormality. Myelination of the left optic disc was noted at age 7 and of the right optic disc at age 13, but no other ocular or systemic abnormalities were identified. Cross-sectional optical coherence tomography (OCT) and en face OCT angiography confirmed the presence of myelination of the retinal nerve fiber layer and excluded other etiologic possibilities including an astrocytic hamartoma.

The Hand-eye Coordination of Professional Baseball Players: The Relationship to Batting.

Significance: A visuomotor skill (eye-hand visual-motor reaction time [EH-VMRT]) important for baseball performance is described. Eye-hand visual-motor reaction time represents the integration of visual information, perceptually based decisions, and motor movements to accomplish a specific task. The speed at which this occurs depends on many factors, some visual, some perceptual, and some motor related.

The Refractive Error of Professional Baseball Players.

Purpose: High levels of visual acuity are required to hit a baseball effectively. Research has shown that any decrease in vision is likely caused by low-order optical aberrations. This study is designed to validate the SVOne autorefractor, and describe the amount and type, of low-order optical aberrations present in a large cohort of professional baseball players.

The effectiveness of an autorefractor with eye-tracking capability in pediatric patients.

Purpose: To study the diagnostic accuracy and effectiveness in children of a new autorefractor with eye-tracking capability.

Methods: Children aged 3-17 years were tested with a Marco Nidek ARK-560A autorefractor before and after cycloplegia. Cycloplegic manifest refractions were conducted on the more cooperative children.

Thoughts on ocular dominance-is it actually a preference?

Background: Ocular dominance has been studied for many years, and there have been many attempts to correlate eye dominance with athletic performance. Although many reports have failed to show a correlation, some reports have shown a relationship between sports performance and eye dominance.

Methods: This report reviews some of those studies and the tests of eye dominance used in the reports.

The role of sports vision in eye care today.

Sports vision as an academic discipline is in its infancy. This review traces its history on many different fronts: early work, research, organizations, literature, cultural environment, sports injuries, and a view of the future. This article was presented as the opening remarks to the first-ever academic sports vision meeting held at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, in January 2010.

The visual function of olympic-level athletes-an initial report.

Objective: To describe the visual functions of Olympic-level athletes and begin to describe any differences between sports.

Methods: A commercially available testing system was used to evaluate 157 Olympic-level athletes. These sports vision evaluations were therefore performed under standardized conditions.

Optical aberrations in professional baseball players.

Purpose: To determine the presence, type, and size of optical higher-order aberrations (HOAs) in professional athletes with superior visual acuity and to compare them with those in an age-matched population of nonathletes.

Setting: Vero Beach and Fort Myers, Florida, USA.

Methods: Players from 2 professional baseball teams were studied.

Effects of head tilt on stereopsis.

Purpose: Depth perception is an important part of many everyday tasks such as driving, catching a ball, and threading a needle. Binocular cues such as horizontal retinal image disparity (HRID) are significant cues to depth and play an important role in overall depth perception. Stereoscopic threshold (stereoacuity) is directly proportional to the interpupillary distance (IPD).

The effect of laser refractive surgery on the on-field performance of professional baseball players.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of laser refractive surgery on the offensive performance of professional baseball players.

Methods: Extensive search of the public media was conducted to determine which major league baseball players had undergone laser refractive surgery and when the procedure was performed. Baseball performance data were then used to determine presurgery and postsurgery baseball performance averages.

Post-traumatic pseudomyopia.

Background: Many clinicians have noted that patients demonstrate a myopic refractive change following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). This apparent myopic shift disappears with cycloplegia, yet stubbornly reappears as soon as the pharmaceutical effect wears off. We propose that this shift is secondary to an irritative lesion that affects the parasympathetic innervation, resulting in ciliary body contracture.

Comparison of suppression, stereoacuity, and interocular differences in visual acuity in monovision and acuvue bifocal contact lenses.

Purpose: The relationship between visual acuity and stereoacuity has been well documented: as binocular visual acuity increases, stereoacuity improves. We compared interocular differences in visual acuity and stereoacuity in two presbyopic soft contact lens modalities, monovision and a new soft bifocal contact lens, the Acuvue Bifocal. The Acuvue Bifocal is hypothesized to show a smaller interocular acuity difference, increased stereoacuity, and decreased suppression over monovision at distance and near.

The effect of ocular dominance on the performance of professional baseball players.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine whether a performance difference exists between baseball players with "same" (right-right) and "crossed" (right-left) hand-ocular dominance.

Design: A cohort study design was used.

Participants: Four hundred and ten major and minor league members of the Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team.

The visual function of professional baseball players.

Purpose: To measure the visual acuity, stereoacuity, and contrast sensitivity of professional baseball players.

Methods: Three hundred eighty-seven professional baseball players underwent several tests of visual function including distance visual acuity. Stereoacuity was evaluated at near by the Randot test and at distance by both contour and random dot targets.

Comparison of fixation disparity measurements obtained with the Wesson Fixation Disparity Card and the Sheedy Disparometer.

We compared the fixation disparity measurements obtained with the Disparometer to those of the Wesson Card. Previous studies suggest that the measurements obtained by these two instruments gave different results. The results of previous studies were based on the analysis of pooled data, which may have led to spurious results.

Electronic submission of abstracts for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Optometry.

Recently the American Academy of Optometry conducted a 2-year trial in which abstracts submitted for presentation at the Annual Meeting could be transmitted to the Academy in electronic form. Electronic submission has many advantages for the author as well as for the Academy and therefore has now been endorsed as the preferred method of submission for future meetings. Step-by-step procedures for electronic submission are described.

Vertical rectus muscle transposition and botulinum toxin (Oculinum) to medial rectus for abducens palsy.

Ten adult patients developed sixth-nerve palsy after trauma or a cerebral tumor. No clinical evidence of recovery of function was noted by at least 8 months after onset. All patients underwent total transposition of the superior and inferior rectus muscle insertions to the area of the lateral rectus insertion, accompanied by botulinum toxin (Oculinum) injection of the ipsilateral medial rectus.

Fresnel vs. conventional prisms: their effects on the apparent fronto-parallel plane horopter.

Among the inherent optical aberrations found in conventional crown glass or resin prisms is the property known as nonuniform relative magnification. Prisms, by definition, displace an image by a given amount. However, the final size of the image is nonuniform, being relatively larger toward the apex than toward the base of the prism.

Performance of the dot visual acuity test with uncorrected ametropia resulting in target blur.

The dot visual acuity test is used to test the acuity of children between the ages of 2 and 4 years who do not respond to the tumbling E test. Because the test involves the detection of a black dot on a white background it is appropriate to ask if the detection threshold is lowered artificially in the presence of target blur. Twenty-one children (42 eyes) were used in the study.

The use of botulinum toxin in the medical management of benign essential blepharospasm.

Twenty-eight patients with mild or moderate cases of benign essential blepharospasm were treated with botulinum toxin Type A. Average follow-up was six months. The injection technique used on these patients is illustrated.