Vision Loss Impact on Navigation in Virtual Reality

University of Rochester

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Hemianopsia; Hemianopsia, Homonymous; Visual Field Defect, Peripheral; Hemianopia; Hemianopia, Homonymous; Stroke Hemorrhagic; Vision Loss Partial; Quadrantanopia; Stroke, Ischemic; Quadrantanopsia; Occipital Lobe Infarct

Treatments: Other: Virtual Reality Driving Task

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06047717

00008669

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this research is to better understand the impact of cortically-induced blindness (CB) and the compensatory strategies subjects with this condition may develop on naturalistic behaviors, specifically, driving. Using a novel Virtual Reality (VR) program, the researchers will gather data on steering behavior in a variety of simulated naturalistic environments. Through the combined use of computer vision, deep learning, and gaze-contingent manipulations of the visual field, this work will test the central hypothesis that changes to visually guided steering behaviors in CB are a consequence of changes to the visual sampling and processing of task-related motion information (i.e., optic flow).

Enrollment: 40 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 75 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Cortically Blind Group:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Residents of the United States or Canada
• Presence of one-sided stroke or stroke-like damage to primary visual cortex or its immediate afferent white matter sustained within the specified age range of 21 - 75 years (verified by MRI and/or CT scans)
• Reliable visual field defects in both eyes (homonymous defects) as measured by Humphrey or equivalent perimetry.
• Willing, able, and competent to provide their own informed consent
• Cognitively able, responsible to understand written and oral instructions in English
• Emmetropic or else wear corrective contact lenses inside the virtual reality headset

Exclusion Criteria:

• Those who have never driven or earned a drivers' license
• Past or present ocular disease interfering with visual acuity
• Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) worse than 20/40 in either eye
• Sustained damage to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus
• Presence of diffuse, whole-brain degenerative processes
• Presence of brain damage deemed by study staff to potentially interfere with outcome measures
• History of traumatic brain injury
• Documented history of drug/alcohol abuse
• Diagnosis of cognitive or seizure disorders
• Diagnosis of one-sided attentional neglect

Control Group:

Inclusion Criteria:

• Normal or corrected-to-normal vision, who are between the ages of 21 and 75 years of age, roughly matched to the age of CB subjects enrolled above
• Competent and responsible, as determined by the Principal Investigator
• Willing, able, and competent to provide their own informed consent
• Normal cognitive abilities, be able to understand written and oral instructions in English
• Emmetropic or else wear corrective contact lenses inside the virtual reality headset

Exclusion Criteria:

• Subjects who have never driven or earned a drivers' license
• BCVA worse than 20/40 in either eye
• Presence of vision loss from ocular diseases or disorders
• Presence of a visual field defect
• Inability to wear corrective contact lenses inside the virtual reality helmet if required to see clearly
• Subjects with a history of neurological disorders
• Subjects with a history of TBI
• Persons who lack the competence or are otherwise unable to perform the visual testing as directed.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Virtual Reality (VR) Driving Task: Cortically Blind Cohort

Experimental group

Description:

Persons who have sustained cortical blindness will perform a driving task in VR, in which they must steer through a series of parameterized turns while maintaining their virtual vehicle centered between the two red lines delineating the "road" edge.

Treatment:

Other: Virtual Reality Driving Task

Virtual Reality (VR) Driving Task: Healthy Control Cohort

Experimental group

Description:

Healthy controls with no vision loss will perform a driving task in VR, in which they must steer through a series of parameterized turns while maintaining their virtual vehicle centered between the two red lines delineating the "road" edge.

Treatment:

Other: Virtual Reality Driving Task