Journal article
Visual, auditory, and audiovisual time-to-collision estimation among participants with age-related macular degeneration compared to a normal-vision group: The TTC-AMD study
PloS one, Vol.20(12), e0337549
12/04/2025
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0337549
PMCID: PMC12677487
PMID: 41343426
Abstract
Little is known about whether and to what degree people with different amounts of visual impairment rely on hearing instead of vision for mobility, particularly in judgments of collision. We measured how much importance was assigned to visual and auditory cues during time-to-collision judgments made by people with age-related macular degeneration (Impaired Vision Group; IV) compared to a control group without age-related macular degeneration (Normal Vision Group; NV). A virtual reality system simulated a roadway with an approaching vehicle viewed from the perspective of a pedestrian. Participants pressed a button to indicate the time the vehicle would reach them. The vehicle was presented visually only, aurally only, or both simultaneously. Standardized regression coefficients and general dominance weights indicated that time-to-collision (TTC) judgments were determined by both auditory and visual cues in both groups. In the vision-only modality condition, the relative importance of distance and optical size compared to TTC was higher in the IV group compared to the NV group, but with a relatively small effect size. In all modality conditions, the mean absolute error of TTC estimates was comparable between groups, and a multimodal advantage was not observed. Intraindividual variability was greater in the IV group only in the AV condition. The implication is that similar performance can be achieved through the use of different sources of information. Importantly, people with and without IV achieved similar performance but showed differences in the relative importance of different sensory sources of information. A comparison of two IV subgroups differing in severity suggested that simply having IV in both eyes is not sufficient to predict TTC estimation differences between people with IV and people without IV who have normal vision. Rather it appears to be the degree of bilateral visual impairment of the IV that matters.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Visual, auditory, and audiovisual time-to-collision estimation among participants with age-related macular degeneration compared to a normal-vision group: The TTC-AMD study
- Creators
- Patricia R. DeLucia - Rice UniversityDaniel Oberfeld - Johannes Gutenberg University MainzJoseph K. Kearney - University of IowaMelissa Cloutier - Rice UniversityAnna M. Jilla - Lamar UniversityAvery Zhou - Retina Consultants of TexasStephanie Trejo Corona - Retina Consultants of TexasJessica Cormier - Retina Consultants of TexasAudrey Taylor - Davies Institute for Speech & Hearing, Katy, TX, United StatesCharles C. Wykoff - Retina Consultants of TexasRobin Baurès - Centre de recherche cerveau et cognition
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- PloS one, Vol.20(12), e0337549
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0337549
- PMID
- 41343426
- PMCID
- PMC12677487
- NLM abbreviation
- PLoS One
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- eISSN
- 1932-6203
- Publisher
- PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
- Grant note
- National Eye Institute (100000053) National Institutes of Health (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100000002) R01EY030961 / National Institutes of Health (100000002) Florian Wickelmaier Universität Tübingen R01EY030961 / National Institutes of Health (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100000002)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/04/2025
- Academic Unit
- Injury Prevention Research Center; Computer Science
- Record Identifier
- 9985091799502771
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