New research sheds light on why patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) often report more difficulty recognising faces than would be expected.
Researchers at New York University School of Medicine and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, have discovered that people with AMD have a markedly different approach to fixating on faces than a sighted control group.
Participants with AMD were more likely to fix on peripheral areas of faces showing less attention to the distinguishing features of eyes, nose and mouth. Their patterns of facial viewing were similar to those associated with others with difficulties in face perception, including people with social phobias, autism, or schizophrenia.
Encouragingly, the researchers suggest that training people to allocate their attention to internal features and to improve control of their eye movements could improve face perception for individuals with AMD.
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See the full report in Optometry and Vision Science the journal of the American Academy of Optometry.
Article published in NB magazine March 2013.