Clinical trial NCT06047717: Vision Loss Impact on Navigation in Virtual Reality
Official title: The Impact of Vision Loss on Naturalistic Behavior and Navigation in Virtual Reality
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Stroke, Ischemic
Quadrantanopia
Hemianopsia, Homonymous
Hemianopia, Homonymous
Hemianopia
Hemianopsia
Occipital Lobe Infarct
Visual Field Defect, Peripheral
Vision Loss Partial
Quadrantanopsia
Stroke Hemorrhagic
Keywords: Occipital stroke
Vision loss after stroke
Vision recovery
Vision restoration
Partial vision loss
Homonymous quadrantanopsia
Homonymous quadrantanopia
stroke
Lead sponsor: University of Rochester
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Rochester Institute of Technology
First posted: 2023-09-21
Enrollment: 40
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 21
Maximum age (years): 75
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: 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).


Eligibility 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.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Virtual Reality (VR) Lane Deviation / Offset
timeFrame: Day 0
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Rochester
country: United States
facility: University of Rochester
state: New York
Study officials:
References: