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Disclosing disease mechanisms with a spatio-temporal summation paradigm

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Abstract

Background

We develop the logic for a stimulus that can evaluate cone-dependent spatial summation and detail the modelling and interpretation of thresholds obtained with this stimulus.

Methods

Fifteen observers participated, including two young normals tested extensively in control experiments, and a clinical trial based on four observers with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), four age-similar controls and five young observers. Monocular spatial summation functions were measured with contrast-modulated Gabor targets that approximated the optimal visual contrast detector. Thresholds were returned from a yes/no adaptive psychophysical algorithm. By fine titration along the size domain it was demonstrated that the spatial summation of normal observers can be adequately described by a two-component model. A reduced set of variables are proposed for clinical applications and the model was applied to data derived using these variables in persons with AMD and age-similar controls.

Results

We do not find a significant age-related loss of contrast sensitivity in our normal group. On the other hand, persons with early AMD exhibited a 0.41 log unit loss of sensitivity (P=0.04) from age-similar controls, without any change in their maximum summation area (Amax).

Conclusions

The nature of the spatial summation is consistent with the interpretation that early AMD produces a decrease in cone input to post-receptoral mechanisms in the absence of neural remodelling.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP0211474) grant.

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Author notes

  1. Andrew J. Zele

    Present address: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, The University of Chicago, 940 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Andrew J. Zele, Rebecca K. O'Loughlin & Algis J. Vingrys

  2. Center for Eye Research Australia, The University of Melbourne, 32 Gisborne Street, East Melbourne, Victoria, 3002, Australia

    Robyn H. Guymer

Authors
  1. Andrew J. Zele
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  2. Rebecca K. O'Loughlin
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  4. Algis J. Vingrys
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Algis J. Vingrys.

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Zele, A.J., O'Loughlin, R.K., Guymer, R.H. et al. Disclosing disease mechanisms with a spatio-temporal summation paradigm. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmo 244, 425–432 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-005-0121-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-005-0121-5

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