Visual function assessment in stroke patients using a dynamic three-dimensional visual tasks

Objectives: Patients with right-hemisphere brain lesions often show unilateral neglect, which causes various difficulties in their daily lives. Disturbances in visuospatial cognition, including unilateral neglect, can be tested quantitatively using questionnaires, yet visuospatial cognition is related not only to the visual system, but also to other cognitive and behavioral functions. Such functions should be assessed by integrative visuo-cognitive tasks. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to clarify visual disturbances in patients with brain lesions using multi-modal visual function tests including three-dimensional and dynamic visual tasks. Methods: We recruited 29 patients, 14 with right- and 15 with left-hemispheric brain lesions, and age-matched control subjects. We conducted depth perception tests and static and active motion detection tests to clarify subjects’ three-dimensional visual recognition performance. Results: There were no significant differences between the patients and controls on any of the visual function tests, except for the static detection test with a mosaic background. However, patients’ total scores on the visual function tests were lower than those of the controls. Discussion: The observed decline in total visual function scores suggests that visual dysfunction caused by stroke should be evaluated not by a single visual function test, but by a series of such tests. We propose that visual functioning in daily life should be evaluated using multi-modal visual function tests.