2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, and annual meetings and conferences have not been the exception. Originally scheduled for May 2020 at St. Pete Beach, Florida, the annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society was moved to an online version held between 19 and 24 of June, 2020.
So, to participate in vVSS, Juan Sepulveda presented online the results of his second PhD experiment that investigated whether mesopic light levels impact on the perception of motion, considering the effects of age and location of the moving stimulus within the visual field. The term “mesopic” describes lighting levels that are very dim, but not quite dark. Mesopic conditions result in activation of both rods and cones in the retina. Rods and cones are separate forms of photoreceptors (cells in the retina that respond to light) that underpin our ability to encode information about the world in both dark (rods) and light (cones) conditions. When both are active (such as in mesopic conditions), visual perception can differ from that in either light or dark conditions. There has previously been very little study of motion perception in mesopic conditions, particularly within non-central vision.
He found that under low light levels, both older and younger adults have difficulties in the identification of the direction of motion of low-contrast sinusoidal patterns and also in identifying the direction of motion of a human walker in both central and peripheral vision.
Global motion perception (the ability to determine the overall direction of motion of a complex stimulus of moving dots) was specifically impaired in dim lighting for older adults in peripheral vision.
Although this year Juan could not enjoy travelling to the hot and sunny Florida during the Australian winter (actually, he was awarded with a ‘travel grant’ for this conference), he enjoyed sharing his work with the vision sciences community, scheduling some online Q&A sessions regarding his work. He also participated in online discussions regarding topics such as: vision sciences outside North America, future careers in vision sciences; and underrepresented groups in vision sciences. Juan has said: “This was an interesting experience that for sure will be relevant for my future career (and as an anecdote for future generations).”
A pdf copy of the poster can be downloaded below.
Clinical Psychophysics Unit, Optometry & Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne 