Evaluating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related home confinement on the refractive error of school-aged children in Germany: a cross-sectional study based on data from 414 eye care professional centres.

Objective: This study aimed at evaluating refractive changes in German school-aged children before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: 414 eye care professional centres from Germany.

Prediction of refractive error and its progression: a machine learning-based algorithm.

Objective: Myopia is the refractive error that shows the highest prevalence for younger ages in Southeast Asia and its projection over the next decades indicates that this situation will worsen. Nowadays, several management solutions are being applied to help fight its onset and development, nonetheless, the applications of these techniques depend on a clear and reliable assessment of risk to develop myopia.

Methods And Analysis: In this study, population-based data of Chinese children were used to develop a machine learning-based algorithm that enables the risk assessment of myopia's onset and development.

The retinal locus of fixation in simulations of progressing central scotomas.

Patients with central scotoma use a preferred retinal locus (PRL) of fixation to perform visual tasks. Some of the conditions that cause central scotoma are progressive, and as a consequence, the PRL needs to be adjusted throughout the progression. The present study investigates the peripheral locus of fixation in subjects under a simulation of progressive central scotoma.

Transfer of an induced preferred retinal locus of fixation to everyday life visual tasks.

Subjects develop a preferred retinal locus of fixation (PRL) under simulation of central scotoma. If systematic relocations are applied to the stimulus position, PRLs manifest at a location in favor of the stimulus relocation. The present study investigates whether the induced PRL is transferred to important visual tasks in daily life, namely pursuit eye movements, signage reading, and text reading.

Can positions in the visual field with high attentional capabilities be good candidates for a new preferred retinal locus?

The sustained component of visual attention lowers the perceptual threshold of stimuli located at the attended region. Attentional performance is not equal for all eccentric positions, leading to variations in perception. The location of the preferred retinal locus (PRL) for fixation might be influenced by these attentional variations.

A preferred retinal location of fixation can be induced when systematic stimulus relocations are applied.

Patients with central vision loss obtain visual information by fixating on an object eccentrically with a preferred retinal locus of fixation (PRL). Patients do not always choose the most efficient PRL position, and as a consequence, visual performance is not always fully exploited. This study investigates whether PRLs can be induced by applying systematic stimulus relocations.