Affiliations: Graduiertenstudium Psychobiologie, Universität
Trier, Johanniterufer 14, 54290 Trier | Institut für Medizinische Psychologie,
Medizinische Fakultät der Otto-von-Guericke Universität, Leipziger
Str. 44, D-39120 Magdeburg
Note: [] Korrespondenzadresse: PD Dr. Erich Kasten, Institut für
Medizinische Psychologie, Medizinische Fa-kultät d. Otto-von-Guericke
Universität, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120 Magdeburg. Tel.: 0391 61 17 119;
Fax: 0391 61 17 103; E-mail: EriKasten@aol.com.
Abstract: The study was conducted to answer the following questions: (1) Does
computer-based visual restitution training improve the visual field size in
patients with prechiasmatic lesions (age of lesion >1 year)? (2) Does this
training, which focuses on simple light perception, also improve other aspects
of vision such as acuity, form or color perception? The patients were trained
for a six-month period with daily PC-based visual training at home for one
hour. While the experimental group (n = 10) was trained with a stimulus
detection task in the border region located between defective and intact areas,
the age-matched control group (n = 9) received pure fixation-training. Results:
In the experimental group we found an increase from 203.2 to 312.8 detected
stimuli; in the control group from 197.7 to 227.8. On average, the size of the
region in which light stimuli could be detected was increased by twenty percent
(p < 0.05). Furthermore, acuity values were also significantly increased (p
< 0.05) and contrast sensitivity was slightly increased; form and color
recognition did not significantly change.
