Aishwarya Ravi¹ (), Stephanie A Biehn¹, Fuseina Safianu¹, T Rowan Candy¹; ¹Indiana University School of Optometry

Purpose: Peripheral vision is key to infants’ developing interactions with the world, and in clinical assessment of visual pathology. Previous studies of detection performance have typically focused on the extent of the visual field during infancy. Here we developed an efficient approach to measuring the sensitivity of peripheral vision across the visual field in young infants. Methods: A Maltese cross (3 degrees) was presented on a rear-projection screen (PROPixx projector, VPixx). An EyeLink 1000 Plus (SR Research) was used to record eye movements with high spatial resolution. A 9-point calibration routine was performed before starting the stimulus at the center of the screen. It then moved in an interleaved combination of 5 smooth pursuit movements to demonstrate tracking and 4 saccadic jumps (5, 10, 15, and 5 degrees from fixation) in a continuous trial of less than 2 minutes. The timing of the stimuli was under the experimenter’s control and the infant’s attention could be redirected using a bell as necessary. Results: Adults and infants (aged two to five months) provided accurate stimulus-driven tracking and saccadic responses to all three eccentricities (5, 10, and 15 degrees). Consistent with the literature, infants’ tracking responses demonstrated more saccades than adults’ smooth pursuit but were accurate to the tracking stimulus. This, therefore, permitted controlled presentation of the peripheral stimuli at specific retinal eccentricities. The use of the tracking approach significantly improved infants’ engagement with the task and confidence in the data. Conclusion: This preliminary study provides a rapid approach for assessing both the peripheral vision of young infants and their ocular motor performance. Modification of the spatio-temporal characteristics of the stimuli will permit evaluation of a wide range of visual functions.

Acknowledgements: NEI R01 EY014460