Assessment of higher-order visual function.

Abstract

Ophthalmologists and neuro-ophthalmologists may be confronted with patients whose complaints go beyond problems with acuity or clarity of vision, raising the question of defects affecting higher-order aspects of visual function, such as reading, recognition, imagery, and visuospatial and visuoconstructional abilities. Standard neuro-ophthalmologic procedures are not designed to measure these functions. This article overviews several neuropsychological procedures that were designed to measure higher-order visual function, and proposes brief adaptations of these procedures that could be used in the office of the ophthalmologist or neuro-ophthalmologist, to provide economical, sensitive screening tests for detecting defects in reading, recognition, imagery, and other complex visual functions.