Réapprendre à voir le monde : Rééduquer les personnes atteintes de dégénérescence maculaire en exploitant les capacités perceptives et cognitives de la vision périphérique

Abstract

Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is a frequent cause of vision loss among people over age of 60. It is an aging process involving a progressive degradation of the central retina. It does not induce total blindness, since it does not affect the peripheral vision. Nonetheless, it makes difficult to read, drive, and perform all daily activities requiring fine details perception. Low-vision care consists in inducing an eccentric fixation so that relevant visual targets impact an unaffected retinal locus. It is necessary but not sufficient to enhance visual extraction. The present work aims to draw the attention of low-vision professionals to the necessity of developing new re-education tools. Beyond the perceptual re-education linked to an optimization of visual information extraction, a cognitive re-education should also be provided in order to enhance the interpretation processes. Indeed, the spatial-frequency properties of the visual world no longer match patient perceptual habits. The visually impaired person has to learn again to use these new sensory data in an optimal way. Contextual information can be a precious help in this learning process. An experimental study involving young people provides elements for another method of low-vision care, in terms of visual cognitive re-education.