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Examining the impact of cognitive deficits and physical impairments on visual perception in individuals with multiple sclerosis
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Examining the impact of cognitive deficits and physical impairments on visual perception in individuals with multiple sclerosis

Ann-Marie Raphail
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Jun 2017
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-7448
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Abstract

Neurosciences Cognition Eye tracking Motor ability Clinical Psychology Cognitive Psychology Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychology Visual Perception
Visual perception is an important aspect of daily life that requires intact oculomotor ability (i.e., eye movement) and cognition (i.e., process information). Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects both these domains and subsequently may lead to impaired visual perception. To examine the relationship between visual perception, cognition, and motor ability, the current study examined reaction times and eye movements of individuals with MS across three visual search tasks. 19 individuals with MS and 21 age-and-gender-matched healthy controls (HC) were administered neuropsychological testing and three eye-tracking tasks of varying cognitive difficulty. Task 1 required participants to look at a circle as quickly as possible to measure saccade velocity (eye movement speed). Task 2 was a simple visual search task that required them to find a green "2" in a matrix of different colored numbers to measure saccade velocity, fixation durations (time looking at particular location), and reaction time. Task 3 was a complex visual search task in which they searched for an "X" hidden in real-world scenes to measure saccade velocity, fixation durations and reaction times. It was found that the MS group had significantly longer reaction times than the HC group on both the number search and scene search tasks. However, there was no significant difference in saccade velocity or fixation durations between the two groups across any of the tasks. These findings indicate that visual search is slower in MS regardless of the difficulty level of the task, suggesting that individuals with MS need more time to perceive, process, and make decisions about visual information. Furthermore, given that there was no difference in saccade velocity, these slowed reaction times are likely driven by cognitive impairment more so than oculomotor deficit.

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