Peropheral Vision in All Species

Introduction

Peripheral vision is used amongst every species ranging from a deep-sea marine animal to a bird flying hundreds of feet above the ground. However, each species’ vision differs to some degree and also differentiates within the species itself. This can be due to various types of eye conditions.

Peripheral vision is the part of vision detected by the eye that occurs at the edges of the central focal point of a person’s gaze. Generally in humans, peripheral vision is much weaker than in other species, specifically in context of differentiating color or shape. Receptor cells on the retina are much more sparse at edges of the eye as opposed to the center which therefore limits the ability to distinguish certain features. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/p/peripheral_vision.htm ) Normal peripheral vision extends 150 degrees laterally in one eye, or 180 with both. This occurs in a participant with ideal vision of 20/20. (http://www.visionrx.com/library/enc/enc_peripheralvision.asp )

The objective of the experiment is to determine whether subjects with hyperopia or myopia have the same degree of lateral peripheral vision. Hyperopia, or farsightedness, occurs if a person’s eyeball is too short for the cornea, or if the cornea has to little curvature so that the light refracting is not focused in the eye correctly. This results in having trouble focusing or concentrating clearly on an object that are near to the person (http://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/hyperopia ). Myopia, or nearsightedness, occurs when a person’s eyeball is too long or their cornea is curved too much. This leads to an incorrect refraction of the light and causes blurred vision when focu...

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...ic subjects have a more affected peripheral vision than myopic.

Results

Results suggested that subjects who were hyperopic had the most limited lateral peripheral vision. Their average range was 20.25 degrees less than the average 20/20 control of 150 degrees. (Figure 1). Myopic subjects also had less range but not to the same extent. The average range was 12 degrees less than the control. This indicates that myopic and hyperopic subjects do not have the same range of peripheral vision as the average 20/20 vision human, hyperopia most significantly.

Figures

Figure 1: Data collected of maximum peripheral detection. Measured in degrees.

Range of Peripheral Vision (°)

Subect # Myopia Hyperopia

1 10 24

2 14 16

3 13 20

4 11 20

5 16 12

6 10 20

7 8 18

8 18 28

9 12 31

10 12 13

11 6 17

12 13 24

Avg 12 20.25

Figure 2: