Heterophoria: Vergence stability and visual acuity after asymmetric saccades

  • Bernhard M. Blum Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
  • Daniel Kirchhoff Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
  • Alexander Bickmann Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
  • Oliver Ehrt Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
  • Andreas Straube Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
  • Thomas Eggert Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
Keywords: heterophoria, vergence, asymmetric saccades, eye movements, visual acuity

Abstract

Many patients with heterophoria report on symptoms related to impaired vision. To investigate whether these symptoms are provoked by saccades this study examines whether in heterophoria effects on intrasaccadic and postsaccadic vergence movements are linked to effects on visual performance. Visual acuity was measured in 35 healthy subjects during fixation and immediately after asymmetric diverging saccades. Binocular position traces were recorded by video-oculography. Subjects with exophoria showed larger intrasaccadic divergence amplitudes, which in turn led to smaller postsaccadic divergence amplitudes. Visual acuity did not depend on heterophoria or vergence amplitudes. The results suggest that compensating for exophoria requires increased convergence activity as compared to orthophoria or compensated esophoria. Visual acuity seemed relatively robust with respect to postsaccadic vergence movements.
Published
2012-10-30
How to Cite
Blum, B. M., Kirchhoff, D., Bickmann, A., Ehrt, O., Straube, A., & Eggert, T. (2012). Heterophoria: Vergence stability and visual acuity after asymmetric saccades. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 5(5). https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.5.5.4
Section
Articles