Inhibition of return at foveal and extrafoveal locations: re-assessing the evidence

The Necessity for Second-eye Cataract Surgery in Bilateral Highly Myopic Patients with Good Visual Acuity in the Unoperated Fellow Eye

PURPOSE

To evaluate the necessity for second-eye cataract surgery in bilateral highly myopic patients with good visual acuity in the unoperated fellow eye.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Seventy-five bilateral highly myopic patients who underwent uneventful sequential cataract surgery (the eye with worse visual acuity operated first) were included in this prospective study. The preoperative BCVA of the eye with better visual acuity in these patients was ≤ 0.3 (logMAR, or Snellen ≥ 20/40). Binocular single vision examinations were performed 1 month after the first-eye and second-eye surgery, respectively. The VF-14 questionnaire was completed before first-eye surgery, 1 month after the first-eye and 1 month after the second-eye surgery, respectively.

RESULTS

The first eye's postoperative SE was -3.07 ± 1.10D and the second eye's preoperative SE was -12.91 ± 5.15D. Binocular single vision functional parameters improved significantly after the second-eye cataract surgery compared with that after the first-eye surgery (all P < .001). The binocular single vision function was negatively correlated with the SE difference between the two eyes after the first-eye surgery. No difference was found between the scores of VF-14 questionnaire preoperatively and after the first-eye surgery. VF-14 score only improved significantly after the second-eye surgery compared with that after the first-eye surgery (P < .001).

CONCLUSION

In bilateral highly myopic cataract patients, binocular single vision function could improve significantly after the second-eye cataract surgery compared with after the first-eye surgery. Bilateral highly myopic patients may undergo second-eye cataract surgery earlier, even if cataract in that eye is not severe enough to affect the visual acuity.

Visuo-spatial cueing in children with differential reading and spelling profiles

Dyslexia has been claimed to be causally related to deficits in visuo-spatial attention. In particular, inefficient shifting of visual attention during spatial cueing paradigms is assumed to be associated with problems in graphemic parsing during sublexical reading. The current study investigated visuo-spatial attention performance in an exogenous cueing paradigm in a large sample (N = 191) of third and fourth graders with different reading and spelling profiles (controls, isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined deficit in reading and spelling). Once individual variability in reaction times was taken into account by means of z-transformation, a cueing deficit (i.e. no significant difference between valid and invalid trials) was found for children with combined deficits in reading and spelling. However, poor readers without spelling problems showed a cueing effect comparable to controls, but exhibited a particularly strong right-over-left advantage (position effect). Isolated poor spellers showed a significant cueing effect, but no position effect. While we replicated earlier findings of a reduced cueing effect among poor nonword readers (indicating deficits in sublexical processing), we also found a reduced cueing effect among children with particularly poor orthographic spelling (indicating deficits in lexical processing). Thus, earlier claims of a specific association with nonword reading could not be confirmed. Controlling for ADHD-symptoms reported in a parental questionnaire did not impact on the statistical analysis, indicating that cueing deficits are not caused by more general attentional limitations. Between 31 and 48% of participants in the three reading and/or spelling deficit groups as well as 32% of the control group showed reduced spatial cueing. These findings indicate a significant, but moderate association between certain aspects of visuo-spatial attention and subcomponents of written language processing, the causal status of which is yet unclear.