# Assessing Spatial Processing Deficits in Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) Using Virtual Reality

> **NIH NIH R21** · MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY · 2020 · $251,082

## Abstract

Project Summary
The objective of the proposed research is to better characterize and understand functional vision processing
deficits in cerebral/cortical visual impairment (CVI), the leading cause of congenital vision loss in the United
States and developed world. Perinatal damage to developing visual pathways and structures leads to impaired
visual spatial processing abilities, particularly in the setting of high environmental complexity and attention
demands. Standard clinical assessments and traditional psychophysical stimuli fail to characterize these
functional vision deficits due to their lack of ecological validity. To address this unmet need, we have
developed a novel virtual reality (VR) based testing platform to assess visual spatial processing abilities in
tasks that approach real world situations. In this cross-sectional behavioral study, performance in children and
adolescents with CVI will be compared to age-matched ocular visual impaired (OVI) individuals as well as
neuro-typical developed sighted controls. Using recorded eye tracking metrics, we will characterize visual
search performance and the effect of manipulating stimulus factors in the VR environment. Our central
hypothesis is that VR based assessment will reveal impairments in visual spatial processing that are not
characterized by standard clinical assessments. In our first aim, we will compare visual spatial processing
abilities using two VR based visual search tasks. The first is a static object visual search task (the “virtual toy
box”) in which participants must search for a toy positioned in an array of distractor elements (other toys). The
second is a dynamic object visual search task (the “virtual corridor”) in which participants must search for the
principal of a school in a crowd of distractor elements (other individuals walking in a school corridor). In both
tasks, visual search performance will be assessed by varying the number of surrounding distractor elements.
We hypothesize that in contrast to individuals with OVI and sighted controls, CVI participants will show greater
impairment in performance as a function of increasing visual task demands associated with environmental
complexity. In the second aim, we will characterize the effect of manipulating environmental factors using the
VR environment on spatial processing abilities. We hypothesize that compared to baseline performance,
individuals with CVI will reveal improved performance when target saliency is enhanced, while manipulations
that decrease overall target saliency and/or increase task complexity will be associated with impaired
performance. The proposed work is of great significance given the potential for developing a novel and
ecologically valid VR based platform that provides for superior assessment of visual functional deficits in
individuals based on their type of visual impairment. Furthermore, this investigation will help lay the ground
work for the creation of new adaptive tools and strat...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10005388
- **Project number:** 5R21EY030587-02
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY
- **Principal Investigator:** Lotfi Merabet
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $251,082
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10005388

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10005388, Assessing Spatial Processing Deficits in Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) Using Virtual Reality (5R21EY030587-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10005388. Licensed CC0.

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