Stimulus motion increases measured visual field extent in children 3.5 to 30 Months of age

Purpose: To examine the influence of stimulus motion on measured visual field extent of 3.5- to 30-month-old children and adults. Methods: Each subject was tested with LED-hybrid and LED-kinetic perimetry procedures, using a black double-arc perimeter. Targets in both procedures were identical in size, color, luminance, contrast, and flicker rate. However, in the LED- hybrid procedure, peripheral targets were sequentially illuminated from more peripheral to more central locations, whereas in the LED-kinetic procedure, a peripheral target on a black wand was manually moved centrally along the perimeter arm. A subset of subjects was also tested with white sphere kinetic perimetry (WSKP). Results: The LED-kinetic procedure produced larger measured visual field extent than the LED-hybrid procedure in 3.5-, 11 -, 17-, and 30- month-olds, but not in 7-month-olds or adults. Data from subjects tested with WSKP indicated that both stimulus motion and discrepancies in scoring methods contributed to the difference reported previously between visual field measurements obtained with WSKP vs. LED-hybrid perimetry. Conclusion: In infants and toddlers, measured visual field extent is larger for moving than for nonmoving targets. Further research is needed to determine whether the effect of motion is related to the visual system or to attentional factors.