TY - JOUR A1 - Greenlee, Mark W. A1 - Rosengarth, Katharina A1 - Schmalhofer, Carolin A1 - Goldhacker, Markus A1 - Brandl-Rühle, Sabine A1 - Plank, Tina T1 - Perceptual learning in patients with central scotomata due to hereditary and age-related macular dystrophy JF - Journal of Vision N2 - Hereditary and age-related forms of macular dystrophy (MD) are characterized by loss of cone function in the fovea, leading to central scotomata and eccentric fixation at the so-called preferred retinal locus (PRL). We investigated whether perceptual learning enhances visual abilities at the PRL. We also determined the neural correlates (3-Tesla fMRI) of learning success. Twelve MD patients (eight with age-related macular dystrophy, four with hereditary macular dystrophies) were trained on a texture discrimination task (TDT) over six days. Patients underwent three fMRI sessions (before, during and after training) while performing the TDT (target at PRL or opposite PRL). Reading speed, visual acuity (Vernier task) and contrast sensitivity were also assessed before and after training. With one exception, all patients showed improved performance (i.e. significant decrease in stimulus onset asynchronies and reaction times, significant increase in hit rates) on the TDT. Eight patients also showed moderate increases in reading speed, six patients showed improved thresholds in contrast sensitivity and nine patients showed improved thresholds in a vernier visual acuity task after TDT training. We found an increase in BOLD response in the projections zone of the PRL in the primary visual cortex in nine of twelve patients after training. The change in fMRI signal correlated (r = .8; p = .02) with the patients’ performance enhancements when the target was in the PRL. The results suggest that perceptual learning can enhance eccentric vision and cortical processing in MD patients. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1167/14.10.666 VL - 14 IS - 10 SP - 666 PB - ARVO ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Plank, Tina A1 - Rosengarth, Katharina A1 - Schmalhofer, Carolin A1 - Goldhacker, Markus A1 - Brandl-Rühle, Sabine A1 - Greenlee, Mark W. T1 - Perceptual learning in patients with macular degeneration JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or hereditary macular dystrophies (JMD) rely on an efficient use of their peripheral visual field. We trained eight AMD and five JMD patients to perform a texture-discrimination task (TDT) at their preferred retinal locus (PRL) used for fixation. Six training sessions of approximately one hour duration were conducted over a period of approximately 3 weeks. Before, during and after training twelve patients and twelve age-matched controls (the data from two controls had to be discarded later) took part in three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions to assess training-related changes in the BOLD response in early visual cortex. Patients benefited from the training measurements as indexed by significant decrease (p = 0.001) in the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the presentation of the texture target on background and the visual mask, and in a significant location specific effect of the PRL with respect to hit rate (p = 0.014). The following trends were observed: (i) improvement in Vernier acuity for an eccentric line-bisection task; (ii) positive correlation between the development of BOLD signals in early visual cortex and initial fixation stability (r = 0.531); (iii) positive correlation between the increase in task performance and initial fixation stability (r = 0.730). The first two trends were non-significant, whereas the third trend was significant at p = 0.014, Bonferroni corrected. Consequently, our exploratory study suggests that training on the TDT can enhance eccentric vision in patients with central vision loss. This enhancement is accompanied by a modest alteration in the BOLD response in early visual cortex. KW - perceptual learning KW - fMRI BOLD KW - cortical plasticity KW - visual cortex KW - macular degeneration Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01189 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 5 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -