Enhancing visual performance for people with central vision loss.

People with central vision loss must use peripheral vision for visual tasks. It is well known that performance for almost all spatial tasks is worse in the normal periphery than in the normal fovea. The primary goal of my ongoing research is to understand the limiting factors and the potential for enhancing vision for people with central vision loss. Here I review my previous work related to understanding the limiting factors on reading, a task that is the primary complaint of many patients with age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of visual impairment in the elderly. I also review my work related to enhancing visual functions in the normal periphery and how it may be applied to people with central vision loss.