Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The effect of convergence and divergence stress on near stereoacuity

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Ophthalmology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of convergence and divergence stress on near stereoacuity in healthy individuals. In this experimental study, 38 subjects with fine stereoacuity (≤30 arcsec in TNO test, 17th edition) were enrolled. Near fusional convergence and divergence amplitudes were measured. Near stereoacuity was evaluated at different levels of convergence and divergence stress induced with base-in and base-out prisms. The amount of base-in and base-out prisms that cause a decreased stereoacuity level of >240 and >60 arcsec were noted for each subject. There were 21 female and 17 male visually normal adults (aged 25–32 years) in the study. The mean near convergence amplitude of the subjects was 37.7 ± 6.9 (25–54) prism dioptres (PD), and the mean near divergence amplitude was 16.5 ± 2.8 (10–25) PD. The mean convergence stress that decreased the stereoacuity level to >240 and >60 arcsec were 20.1 ± 7.9 (4–35) PD and 13.9 ± 5.4 (4–30) PD, respectively. The mean divergence stress that decreased the stereoacuity levels to >240 arcsec was 11.5 ± 2.9 (4–18) PD, and to >60 arcsec was 8.7 ± 2.9 (4–18) PD. Decreased stereoacuity is an important criterion for judging deterioration for patients with intermittent deviations. However, it is not clear what might be occurring in these deteriorating patients. We specifically determined that short periods of prism-induced convergence and divergence are accompanied by a decrease in fine near stereoacuity in visually normal adults. Controlling intermittent deviations by using vergence system could be the simple cause of decreased stereoacuity in these patients.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Jenkins TCA, Pickwell LD, Abd-Manan F (1992) Effect of induced fixation disparity on binocular visual acuity. Ophthal Physiol Opt 12(3):229–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Jenkins TCA, Abd-Manan F, Pardhan S (1994) Fixation disparity and near visual acuity. Ophthal Physiol Opt 15(1):53–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Pardhan S, Gilchrist J (1990) The effect of monocular defocus on binocular contrast sensitivity. Ophthal Physiol Opt 10(1):33–36

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bishop P (1987) Binocular vision. In: Moses HW (ed) Adler’s physiology of the eye. CV Mosby, St Louis, pp 619–689

    Google Scholar 

  5. Westheimer G (1994) Seeing depth with two eyes: stereopsis. Proc Biol Sci 257(1349):205–214

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Holmes JM, Birch EE, Leske DA, Fu VL, Mohney BG (2007) New tests of distance stereoacuity and their role evaluating intermittent exotropia. Ophthalmology 114(6):1215–1220

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Walsh LA, Laroche GR, Tremblay F (2000) The use of binocular visual acuity in the assessment of intermittent exotropia. J AAPOS 4(3):154–157

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Laird PW, Hatt SR, Leske DA, Holmes JM (2007) Stereoacuity and binocular visual acuity in prism-induced exodeviation. J AAPOS 11(4):362–366

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Laird PW, Hatt SR, Leske DA, Holmes JM (2008) Distance stereoacuity in prism-induced convergence stress. J AAPOS 12(4):370–374

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Sheard C (1930) Zones of ocular comfort. Am J Optom 7:9–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Kromeier M, Schmitt C, Bach M, Kommerell G (2003) Stereoacuity versus fixation disparity as indicators for vergence accuracy under prismatic stress. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 23(1):43–49

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Walraven J (1975) Amblyopia screening with random-dot stereograms. Am. J. Ophthal 80(5):893–900

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Fry GA, Kent PR (1944) The effects of base-in and base-out prisms on stereo-acuity. Am J Optom Arch Am Acad Optom 21:492–507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Abd Manan F, Jenkins TC, Collinge AJ (2001) The effect of clinical visual stress on stereoacuity measured with the TNO test. Malays J Med Sci 8(2):25–31

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Von Noorden GK, Campos EC (2002) Measurement of vergences. In: Lampert R, Cox K, Burke D (eds) Binocular vision and ocular motility: examination of the patient-II, 6th edn. Mosby, St Louis, MO, pp 202–210

    Google Scholar 

  16. Saladin JJ (1998) Phorometry and stereopsis. In: Benjamin WJ (ed) Borish’s clinical refraction. Saunders, Philadelphia, pp 724–773

    Google Scholar 

  17. Abd-Manan F (2000) The effect of induced visual stress on three dimensional perception. Malays J Med Sci 7(2):18–26

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Saladin JJ (1995) Effects of heterophoria on stereopsis. Optom Vis Sci 72(7):487–492

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Spencer S, Firth AY (2007) Stereoacuity is affected by induced phoria but returns toward baseline during vergence adaptation. J AAPOS 11(5):465–468

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Cole RG, Boisvert RP (1974) Effect of fixation disparity on stereoacuity. Am J Optom 51:206–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Serrano-Pedraza I, Manjunath V, Osunkunle O, Clarke MP, Read JC (2011) Visual suppression in intermittent exotropia during binocular alignment. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52(5):2352–2364

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, 35040, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey

    Elif Demirkilinc Biler, Suzan Guven Yilmaz & Onder Uretmen

  2. Manisa Government Hospital, Manisa, Turkey

    Emine Kucukceran

Authors
  1. Elif Demirkilinc Biler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Suzan Guven Yilmaz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emine Kucukceran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Onder Uretmen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elif Demirkilinc Biler.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Written informed consent was obtained from the subjects and the study was conducted according to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. The manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Demirkilinc Biler, E., Guven Yilmaz, S., Kucukceran, E. et al. The effect of convergence and divergence stress on near stereoacuity. Int Ophthalmol 37, 165–168 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-016-0248-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-016-0248-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation