Abstract
Cataract and poor refraction cause severe impairment of visual acuity and reduction of sensitivity to luminance contrasts. However, retinal blur affects the perceptibility of suprathreshold chromatic contrasts much less than suprathreshold luminance contrast. The advantage of color is even more marked at threshold. Simulating cataract and inducing myopia by either diffusing or defocusing a 2° × 2° target, or a coarse grating (spatial frequency less than 0.3 c/deg), had a strong effect on luminance contrast sensitivity. Luminance detection thresholds increased by a factor between 5 and 10 after blur. On the other hand, for chromatic targets viewed against a neutral background, the same blur caused only a minor increase of detection threshold. Examples are given of how these results may be utilized in the rehabilitation of visually impaired patients with refraction defects and beginning cataract.
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Seim, T., Valberg, A. (1993). Image diffusion in cataracts affects chromatic and achromatic contrast perception differently. In: Drum, B. (eds) Colour Vision Deficiencies XI. Documenta Ophthalmologica Proceedings Series, vol 56. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1856-9_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1856-9_17
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