Mapping Visual Fields in a Panoramic Driving Simulator Under Different Task Loads in Patients with Glaucoma

Glaucoma causes visual field loss, which may impair detection of objects and hazards during driving. Standard clinical visual field testing, developed to address status of disease, is not designed to capture the effects of visual field loss in ecological settings. To address this need, we developed a driving stimulus detection task (DSVF) similar to clinical perimetry for deployment in a panoramic driving simulator. The outcome measure is a gray scale map of the driver’s response to visual test stimuli in the panoramic driving environment 22 glaucoma subjects and 18 controls completed the DSVF under: a) conditions similar to clinic perimetry with a fixation target; b) a no-driving condition with eye and head movements allowed; and c) while driving. The derived visual field index (DSVFVFI) decreased with increasing task load in both groups, and more so in glaucoma. A predictive formula was generated that allows an estimate of the driver’s available field of view under different task loads from clinical perimetry result