Visual crowding shows that it is harder to recognize objects when these are surrounded by similar objects, such as in a cluttered environment. The phenomenon has relevance in various ophthalmic and neurological disorders. Assessing crowding can be considered a laboratory test that approximates many aspects of vision in daily life. But how to measure this efficiently in a clinical context? In a recent paper in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, Dilce Tanriverdi and Frans Cornelissen show how innovative paradigms based on measuring eye movements enable a faster assessment of visual crowding. Amongst others, they designed paradigms that use ‘flower’ like stimuli, with a central stimulus (also referred to as a ‘Gabor’) at the heart of the flower, and the surrounding stimuli being its petals. Such paradigms may potentially facilitate future routine crowding assessment. However, the usability of these paradigms in specific patient populations and towards specific purposes should be assessed.
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