Visual acuity in human infants: A review and comparison of behavioral and electrophysiological studies

Dobson, Velma; Teller, Davida Y.

doi:10.1016/0042-6989(78)90001-9

Cited by 459 publications

(179 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This result agrees with the previously reported lack of difference between term and preterm infants for visual acuity, measured by the reversal pattern VEP response (16). Since we measured differences in contrast sensitivity processed by the visual pathway at the level of the primary visual cortex, our result suggests that the primary visual cortex processing of term and preterm infants is closely similar.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Contrast sensitivity threshold measured by sweep-visual evoked potential in term and preterm infants at 3 and 10 months of age

Oliveira

Costa

Souza

et al. 2004

Braz J Med Biol Res

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Although healthy preterm infants frequently seem to be more attentive to visual stimuli and to fix on them longer than full-term infants, no difference in visual acuity has been reported compared to term infants. We evaluated the contrast sensitivity (CS) function of term (N = 5) and healthy preterm (N = 11) infants at 3 and 10 months of life using sweep-visual evoked potentials. Two spatial frequencies were studied: low (0.2 cycles per degrees, cpd) and medium (4.0 cpd). The mean contrast sensitivity (expressed in percentage of contrast) of the preterm infants at 3 months was 55.4 for the low spatial frequency (0.2 cpd) and 43.4 for the medium spatial frequency (4.0 cpd). At 10 months the low spatial CS was 52.7 and the medium spatial CS was 9.9. The results for the term infants at 3 months were 55

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Contrast sensitivity threshold measured by sweep-visual evoked potential in term and preterm infants at 3 and 10 months of age

Oliveira

Costa

Souza

et al. 2004

Braz J Med Biol Res

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“…The most common behavioural method used to investigate infant vision by researchers is the forced choice preferential looking (FPL) test. The FPL technique was conceived by Davida Teller 10 and has been used by various research groups such as Dobson et al, 11 Atkinson and Braddick, 12 Banks and Salapatek 13 and Gwiazda et al 14 In FPL the observer presents a display to the child, half of which is plain and the other half contains a pattern. They measure resolution acuity, using either a grating target as with the Teller cards ( Figure 1A), or the vanishing optotype principle, as with the more recently developed Cardiff Acuity Cards 15 ( Figure 1B).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Visual Acuity and Contrast Sensitivity in Children

Leat

Yadav

Irving

2009

Journal of Optometry

152

103

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PURPOSE: Most studies of visual development have concentrated on visual development of infants. Only a few studies have extended this to children and determined the point at which visual function becomes truly adult-like. Yet from a clinical and research perspective it is important to know this. This review paper is a discussion of the development of visual acuity and contrast sensitivity into childhood. METHODS:The literature on subjective (measured with preferential looking or psychophysical methods) and objective (visually-evoked potential) measures of visual acuity and contrast sensitivity was examined with particular emphasis on studies of children over the age of 5 years and those articles that compared different age groups and those that made a comparison with adults. RESULTS: Visual acuity was found to be fully mature between the ages of 5 and the mid teenage years, while contrast sensitivity was found to mature fully between the ages of 8 to 19 years. Thus, there is still no clear answer to the fundamental question of when these basic aspects of visual function mature, but it may be later than previously thought. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies are needed to answer this basic question more precisely and objective measures, such as VEP, may be able to answer this question better than psychophysical methods. KEY WORDS: visual development; visual acuity; contrast sensitivity; critical period; visually-evoked potential. RESUMEN OBJETIVO: La mayoría de los estudios sobre desarrollo visual se han centrado en el desarrollo visual de bebés. Sólo unos pocos estudios han ampliado el intervalo de edades estudiadas para incluir a niños y han determinado en qué momento la función visual alcanza un estado verdaderamente equiparable al de un adulto. Sin embargo, desde una perspectiva clínica y de interés científico, es importante conocer este dato. En este artículo de revisión se analiza el desarrollo de la agudeza visual y de la sensibilidad al contraste a lo largo de la infancia. MÉTODOS: Se analizaron los artículos científicos existentes sobre medidas de agudeza visual y de sensibilidad al contraste, tanto subjetivas (medidas con la técnica de mirada preferencial o por métodos psicofísicos) como objetivas (potenciales visuales evocados), centrándonos particularmente en aquellos estudios realizados en niños mayores de 5 años y en aquellos artículos donde se compararon diversos grupos de edad entre sí o con un grupo de adultos. RESULTADOS: Se encontró que para la agudeza visual el ojo alcanza un estado plenamente maduro a una edad comprendida entre los 5 y los 15-16 años, mientras que para la sensibilidad al contraste el ojo alcanza la madurez plena a una edad comprendida entre los 8 y los 19 años. Así, todavía no disponemos de una respuesta clara a la pregunta fundamental de cuándo estos aspectos de la función visual acaban de madurar, pero es posible que esto suceda a una edad más tardía de la que se creía hasta ahora. CONCLUSIONES: Es necesario realizar más estudios para poder dar una respuesta más precisa a...

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“…Because visual acuity (Dobson & Teller, 1978;Skoczenski & Norcia, 1999) and color vision are initially quite poor (Clavadetscher, Brown, Ankrum, & Teller, 1988;Teller & Bornstein, 1987), young infants have difficulty acquiring pattern and color information. In contrast, infants perceive shape and size differences from birth (Slater, Mattock, & Brown, 1990;Slater, Morison, & Rose, 1983).…”

Section: The Underlying Basis For Infants' Differential Sensitivity Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants' ability to use luminance information to individuate objects

Woods

Wilcox

2006

Cognition

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Recent research indicates that infants first use form and then surface features as the basis for individuating objects. However, very little is known about the underlying basis for infants' differential sensitivity to form than surface features. The present research assessed infants' sensitivity to luminance differences. Like other surface properties, luminance information typically reveals little about an object. Unlike other surface properties (e.g. pattern, color), the visual system can detect luminance differences at birth. The outcome of two experiments indicated that 11.5-month-olds, but not 7.5-month-olds, used luminance differences to individuate objects. These results suggest that it is not the age at which infants can detect a feature, but the nature of the information carried by the feature, that determines infants' capacity to individuate objects.

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Visual acuity in human infants: A review and comparison of behavioral and electrophysiological studies

Cited by 459 publications

References 34 publications

Contrast sensitivity threshold measured by sweep-visual evoked potential in term and preterm infants at 3 and 10 months of age

Contrast sensitivity threshold measured by sweep-visual evoked potential in term and preterm infants at 3 and 10 months of age

Development of Visual Acuity and Contrast Sensitivity in Children

Infants' ability to use luminance information to individuate objects

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