Contrast Sensitivity, Visual Field, Color Vision, Motion Perception, and Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVES: To examine relationships between visual function (ie, contrast sensitivity, visual field, color vision, and motion perception) and cognitive impairment, including any definition of "cognitive impairment," mild cognitive impairment, or dementia. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analyses. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Any settings; participants with (cases) or without (controls) cognitive impairment. METHODS: We searched 4 databases (to January 2024) and included published studies that compared visual function between cases and controls. Standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% CIs were calculated where data were available. Data were sufficient for meta-analyses when cases were people with dementia. The Joanna Briggs Institute checklists were used for quality assessment. RESULTS: Fifty-one studies/69 reports were included. Cross-sectional evidence shows that people with dementia had worse contrast sensitivity function and color vision than controls: measured by contrast sensitivity (log units) on letter charts, SMD -1.22 (95% CI -1.98, -0.47), or at varied spatial frequencies, -0.92 (-1.28, -0.57); and by pseudoisochromatic plates, -1.04 (-1.59, -0.49); color arrangement, -1.30 (-2.31, -0.29); or matching tests, -0.51 (-0.78, -0.24). They also performed more poorly on tests of motion perception, -1.20 (-1.73, -0.67), and visual field: mean deviation, -0.87 (-1.29, -0.46), and pattern standard deviation, -0.69 (-1.24, -0.15). Results were similar when cases were limited to participants with clinically diagnosed Alzheimer disease. Sources of bias included lack of clarity on study populations or settings and definitions of cognitive impairment. The 2 included longitudinal studies with follow-ups of approximately 10 years were of good quality but reported inconsistent results. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: In the lack of longitudinal data, cross-sectional studies indicate that individuals with cognitive impairment have poorer visual function than those with normal cognition. Additional longitudinal data are needed to understand whether poor visual function precedes cognitive impairment and the most relevant aspects of visual function, dementia pathologies, and domains of cognition.

Surface properties and the perception of color.

We examined whether perception of color saturation and lightness depends on the three-dimensional (3D) shape and surface gloss of surfaces rendered to have different hues. In Experiment 1, we parametrically varied specular roughness of predominantly planar surfaces with different mesoscopic relief heights. The orientation of surfaces was varied relative to the light source and observer. Observers matched perceived lightness and chroma (effectively saturation) using spherical objects rendered using CIE LCH color space. We observed strong interactions between perceived saturation and lightness with changes in surface orientation and surface properties (specular roughness and 3D relief height). Declines in saturation and increases in lightness were observed with increasing specular roughness. Changes in relief height had greater effects on perceived saturation and lightness for blue hues compared with reddish and greenish hues. Experiment 2 found inverse correlations between perceived gloss and specular roughness across conditions. Experiment 3 estimated perceived specular coverage and found that a weighted combination of perceived gloss and specular coverage could account for perceived color saturation and lightness, with different coefficients accounting for the perceptual experience for each of the three hue conditions. These findings suggest that perceived color saturation and lightness depend on the separation of specular highlights from diffuse shading informative of chromatic surface reflectance.

Effect of blue-blocking lenses on colour contrast sensitivity.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: There is a significant unintended consequences of blue-blocking lenses on visual behaviour, particularly for the detection of colour. Optometrists need to be mindful of this when prescribing the appropriate blue-blocking lenses for individuals who work in environments in which blue light is prevalent. BACKGROUND: The selective reduction in visible wavelengths transmitted through commercially available blue-blocking lenses is known to influence object appearance and luminance contrast, and also potentially object colour contrast. The present study investigated the effect of a number of commercially available blue-blocking lenses on colour contrast sensitivity in normal individuals under low and high contrast stimulus conditions. METHODS: Five healthy participants (one man and four women), aged between 23 and 39-years, were recruited for this study. Crizal Prevencia (Essilor), Blue Guardian (Opticare), and Blu-OLP (GenOp) lenses were examined in this study in comparison to a control lens (clear lens without blue-filtering coating). In Experiment 1, colour contrast thresholds were measured using a visual search colour detection task in which the colour (CIE Lu'v' red, green, blue and yellow) of the target circle stimulus (randomly located in an annulus of achromatic circles) was systematically reduced using a staircase procedure. As blue-blocking lenses selectively block blue light, in Experiment 2, colour contrast thresholds were specifically quantified for a range of short wavelengths near the attenuation transmittance range of the blue-blocking lenses tested. RESULTS: Experiments 1 and 2 showed that colour contrast was impaired only for blue colours, and this was most evident at low contrasts. Additionally, the blue-blocking lenses with lower transmittance profiles led to greater reductions in colour contrast sensitivity and shown to affect colour contrast thresholds. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that while reducing blue light potentially minimises the harmful effect of blue hazard light, blue-blocking lenses can unintentionally reduce colour contrast sensitivity, particularly at low light levels.

Effects of Shape, Roughness and Gloss on the Perceived Reflectance of Colored Surfaces.

This study examined perceptual differentiation of specular from diffuse shading for the recovery of surface color and gloss. In Experiment 1, we parametrically varied the mesoscale relief height of globally planar surfaces, specular sharpness and the orientation of the surface relative to the light source. We obtained psychophysical matches for perceived color saturation and value (HSV), but also considered whether the main effects could be influenced by color space used when transforming data to perceptually-uniform CIE LCH space. Results revealed strong interactions between perceived color attributes and the lighting conditions, the structure of specular reflections, and surface relief. Declines in saturation were observed with increasing specular roughness (using an HSV color representation), but no similar decline was observed in chroma (using a CIE LCH color representation). Experiment 2 found strong negative correlations between perceived gloss and specular roughness. Perceived gloss also depended on mesoscopic relief height and orientation of the surface relative to the light source. Declines in perceived gloss moderately accounted for the variability in color saturation and value matches obtained in Experiment 1. We found information about perceived specular coverage could further improve the model's accountability of perceived color saturation and lightness (Experiment 3). These findings together suggest that perceived color saturation and color value depends on the visual system's ability to distinguish the underlying diffuse shading from specular highlights in images.

The Influence of Cast Shadows on the Detection of Three-Dimensional Curved Contour Structure.

Cast shadows have been shown to provide an effective ordinal cue to the depth position of objects. In the present study, two experiments investigated the effectiveness of cast shadows in facilitating the detection of spatial contours embedded in a field of randomly placed elements. In Experiment 1, the separation between the cast shadow and the contour was systematically increased to effectively signal different contour depth positions (relative to background elements), and this was repeated for patterns in which the lighting direction was above and from below. Increasing the shadow separation improved contour detection performance, but the degree to which sensitivity changed was dependent on the lighting direction. Patterns in which the light was from above were better detected than patterns in which the lighting direction was from below. This finding is consistent with the visual system assuming a "light-from-above rule" when processing cast shadows. In Experiment 2, we examined the degree to which changing the shape of the cast shadow (by randomly jittering the position of local cast shadow elements) affected the ability of the visual system to rely on the cast shadow to cue the depth position of the contour. Consistent with a coarse scale analysis, we find that cast shadows remained an effective depth cue even at large degrees of element jitter. Our findings demonstrate that cast shadows provide an effective means of signaling depth, which aids the process of contour integration, and this process is largely tolerant of local variations in lighting direction.

The perception of three-dimensional contours and the effect of luminance polarity and color change on their detection.

In the present study we investigated the detectability of three-dimensional (3D) cocircular contours defined by binocular disparity and established the influence of a number of stimulus factors to their perception. In Experiment 1 we examined the depth range over which local elements are grouped in depth, and whether contour detectability systematically changed with the degree to which they are oriented in depth. We found that increasing the orientation of curved contours in depth improved detection performance. In Experiment 2, we examined the degree to which contour detection was disrupted by varying their continuity in depth by jittering the local depth position of contour elements. Detection performance declined with the increasing displacement of local contour elements in depth away from the depth orientation of the contour. Experiments 3 and 4 ascertained whether a detection advantage is afforded to 3D contours defined by local variations in luminance polarity and color. Local color and polarity differences can disrupt the two-dimensional grouping of local contour elements on the basis of similarity, but we tested whether continuity in depth facilitates grouping of contour elements differing in polarity and color. We found no detection advantage for 3D contours defined by local color and polarity variations, suggesting binocular disparity does not facilitate grouping in depth when local elements differ in color and polarity. These findings further suggest the visual system uses binocular disparity to detect contours, but is likely to involve systems tuned to luminance polarity and color.