The Effect of Age on Binocular Vision Normative Values

Eye Movements in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Ocular Biomarkers

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI, or concussion), results from direct and indirect trauma to the head (i.e. a closed injury of transmitted forces), with or without loss of consciousness. The current method of diagnosis is largely based on symptom assessment and clinical history. There is an urgent need to identify an objective biomarker which can not only detect injury, but inform prognosis and recovery. Ocular motor impairment is argued to be ubiquitous across mTBI subtypes and may serve as a valuable clinical biomarker with the recent advent of more affordable and portable eye tracking technology. Many groups have positively correlated the degree of ocular motor impairment to symptom severity with a minority attempting to validate these findings with diffusion tract imaging and functional MRI. However, numerous methodological issues limit the interpretation of results, preventing any singular ocular biomarker from prevailing. This review will comprehensively describe the anatomical susceptibility, clinical measurement, and current eye tracking literature surrounding saccades, smooth pursuit, vestibulo-ocular reflex, vergence, pupillary light reflex, and accommodation in mTBI.

Vision through Healthy Aging Eyes

As life expectancy grows, so too will the number of people adversely affected by age. Although it is acknowledged that many conditions and diseases are associated with age, this mini-review will present a current update of the various visual changes that generally occur in healthy individuals disregarding the possible effects of illness. These alterations influence how the world is perceived and in turn can affect efficiency or the ability to perform ordinary daily tasks such as driving or reading. The most common physical developments include a decreased pupil size and retinal luminance as well as changes both in intercellular and intracellular connections within the retina along the pathway to the visual cortex and within the visual cortex. The quantity and the physical location of retinal cells including photoreceptors, ganglion and bipolar retinal cells are modified. The clarity of intraocular organs, such as the intraocular lens, decreases. These all result in common visual manifestations that include reduced visual acuity, dry eyes, motility changes, a contraction of the visual field, presbyopia, reduced contrast sensitivity, slow dark adaptation, recovery from glare, variation in color vision and a decreased visual processing speed. Highlighting these prevalent issues as well as current and possible future innovations will assist providers to formulate treatments and thereby conserve maximum independence and mobility in the modern mature population.

Air shooting competition effects on visual skills depending on the sport level

Olympic shooting is a sport with high demands of accuracy. Minimal visual errors could be related to performance losses. However, not all visual skills have been studied in depth in this sport. The main objectives of this study were to compare differences in shooters' visual skills by level and to analyze the competition effect on them. Sixty-six participants were distributed in three groups (non-athletes, elite and non-elite). Eleven visual variables were tested in four skills groups (visual acuity, heterophoria, accommodation functions and other visual skills). The data were collected through a pre- and post-competition simulation test. The results of the study showed differences between groups by shooting sport level. In general, shooters had higher visual acuity values than non-athletes p < .001 with large size effects (d between 1.01 and 2.35), and elite shooters presented higher values of accommodation than non-elite shooters p < .05 with large size effects (d between 0.88 and 0.97). Furthermore, different visual skills were modified after competition depending on the shooting level. Specifically, visual accommodation skills were only improved in elite shooters. Finally, our study suggests that elite shooters employ different visual strategies or skills to non-elite shooters and that shooting activity is closely related to some specific visual skills. This aspect should be considered by coaches in the design of optimal visual trainings and improve the shooters' performance.Highlights Shooters showed better acuity skills than non-athletes.Shooting activity seems to improve visual acuity skills, binocular visual time and eye-hand coordination in non-elite shooters, and accommodation and eye-hand coordination in elite shooters immediately after the competition simulation.Elite shooters employ different visual strategies or skills to non-elite shooters.Non-dominant eye occlusion may benefit binocular vision recovery by inhibiting aiming action and the use of accommodative flexibility could be related to the QE during the shot.