E-2 ALBUOUEROUE JOURNAL Sunday, October 21. 1984 'E' Chart Eye Exam Fades Away as High-Tech Moves In lne cnart test measures is really very poor," he said. to the demands of the job." system is thought to use different groups of nerve cells to transmit By Jon Van CHICAGO TRIBUNE only one sort of acuity, while the new tests provide a whole range of information, Wilson said. "This measures the ability of a person to see blurring patterns or all different sizes," he said. "Some ophthalmologists may're-sist the new tests because they are familiar and comfortable with the old test, but there is no other reason." Arthur Ginsburg, a pioneer in doing contrast testing for the Air Force, has founded a private company to market eye charts Contrast sensitivity testing combined with results from 15 years of laboratory testing could provide standards that would be much better related to job demands, Ginsburg said.
Modern eye tests could also identify people with poor enough contrast sensitivity to be restrained from driving at night. "There are a lot of people out there, people with cataracts, for example, who can pass the existing eye tests, but whose vision Widespread contrast sensitivity -testing could also lead to hew', standards for roadway lighting' and signage that would meet the 1 needs of drivers with marginal! contrast sensitivity, he said. Within three to five years, Ginsberg predicts, the new contrast sensitivity tests will have edged out the old charts as the standard for all vision testing, unless something dramatic happens to speed the transition. work together to produce images. The testing has shown repeatedly that there is no connection between a person's ability to pass a standard eye chart test and to see well while piloting an airplane or driving an automobile.
One study in California of 16,000 drivers found no correlation between visual acuity as revealed from eye chart testing and the accident rate of the drivers, said Robert Sekuler, a psychology professor at Northwestern University. "If your visual acuity is good enough to get a license at all, that's good enough," he said. Hugh R. Wilson, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at the University of Chicago, said basic research into visual contrast perception enables scientists to predict how brain cells work. "We have used these tests in the laboratory with monkeys to study responses in a single brain cell," Wilson said.
Such basic research has led to the channel theory of visual perception, in which a visual visual information to the brain, with each group representing a different channel. When a person has good contrast sensitivity, such as the ability to quickly perceive a picture of a white cat on a white rug, it is an indication that all channels are functioning well. When contrast sensitivity is less than normal, it may indicate damage to one or more of the channels, either because of disease or disability. A standard way to test contrast sensitivity involves the use of small bars of varying widths and shades of gray. These bars, called sine wave gratings by researchers, represent' the most basic visual pattern into which an image may be broken down.
The variance of the bars as to size and contrast with their background provide a standard measurement for a person's threshold of contrast perception. The bars are tilted to the left or right, are straight up or blank, providing a means of identifying if a person actually does see them. To take a standard vision test using a chart with a huge on the top line is to gaze into the past, say researchers who suggest that it's time to turn our eyes to the future. That future will include new charts or computerized video screens that measure a whole range of visual perceptions rather than merely the acuity necessary to read high-contrast black letters on a white background. This new visiOn-testyig technology, which is just emerging from basic research into clinical use, may provide information suggesting who can see well enough to drive at night and who cannot.
It may also provide clues to a number of diseases, ranging from multiple sclerosis to glaucoma, that can rob a person of sight. For more than a decade, psychologists, physiologists and others have conducted experiments with humans and animals to learn how the eyes and brain HAT A LIFT! measuring contrast sensitivity. His firm, Vistech Consultants Inc. of Dayton, Ohio, began selling the eye chart systems this summer. Ginsburg argues that the charts may be used to provide new standards for public safety and transportation departments in using eye tests.
"The standards you have now are based on nothing but historical precedent," he said. "People who apply to be policemen or firemen must be able to read down to a certain line on an 'E' chart. That has no proven relation fit Ouch by Any Other Name Is Still a Pain fiimmo Purl Re9- 35 and 45- Choose the tannine i pem that. gjye y0(J the kjnd Qf pGrm, SdlG 29.88 curls that you want, at a price you'll love! Our Helene Curtis Even Heat perm, perms include shampoo, cut Sale 35.88 and ome t5 not recommended for bleached or frosted hair. "There's been very little work done on the subject.
I find it fascinating." Fascinating, too, were the howls of pain swelling the Cal State LA. gym during the Olympic judo competition. It was at the judo tournament that a reporter renewed acquaintance with Cupic Grgur, a sports writer from Osijek, Yugoslavia, whom he'd known from all over. The topic, of course, was pain. "For science's sake, kindly tread on my toe," said Grgur.
The reporter obliged. Grgur loosed a cry of anguish far superior to the pedestrian "Ouch" and easily the equal of "Ogbeo." "Beautiful," the reporter said. "How would you spell that?" "J-O-J," said Grgur, "just as it sounds." "Joj? As in 'here come da "Not exactly," said Grgur. "More like as in 'Yoy to the AAAAEEEEIIII! Sculpture nail by solar nail. Ear piercing now available.
We use and recommend Nexxus products. Prices effective through Saturday, October 27th. CHARGE IT. PHONE 881-9349 annoyance. "Regular" pain, according to the Finnish Consulate, is greeted by a very American "Ow." More often, though, it's "Pahus." Pahus? "It usually goes before, or after, the Roughly, it means, 'Something evil has happened." Physician Aronson remembers "well and fondly" the Spanish-speaking population of the Bronx.
"There was this maternity hospital, seven stories of mothers, mostly of Spanish, Italian and Irish descent. We had this old Irish head nurse, Sister Kathleen. Now there was a woman who understood cries of pain. "She was uncanny, Sister Kathleen. She could always tell when the mother-to-be wasn't just moaning, but was truly ready for delivery.
"The Spanish women, she said, were ready to give birth when they started to shout, 'Ay, With the Italians, it was 'Mama "With the Irish, Sister Kathleen said she knew they were within five minutes of delivery when they started cursing their The Albanians are something else. They really are. Pushed to the wall, Zef Llogoreci, a linguist in Monterey, admitted, without much enthusiasm, that the Albanians might, in a pinch, say "Au!" which was news to Albanian Vajze Mali. "I went through a 37-hour childbirth," she said proudly, "and I never made a sound." Rose Dosti, a Times colleague of Albanian extraction, understands. "It's a national characteristic, called 'trim, she said.
"Albanians would die before admitting to pain." And frequently have. "I met a Yugoslavian official in Baghdad," Ms. Dosti recalled. 'Albanian, he said. 'During the war, we hanged some of them.
Not one let out a sound. I never saw anything like it' Nancy Cobb, professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, is intrigued by the subject, even plans to do a little field work with her classes. "I just don't know why one cries out," she conceded, "or at what age one says 'Ouch as opposed to CONTINUED FROM PAGE E-1 do say something, it's usually 'Ow' or (Foster, it should be noted, treats very few Yorubas.) "It's a release, to some degree, but mainly it's a distraction. A noise even if one makes the noise oneself diverts attention from the other sensory apparatus that's being disturbed. "Some of my patients even ask me to tell them a story while I'm working, to keep one sense working, occupied.
That's one of the reasons dentists pipe in music, or use earphones. Some now are playing the sounds of waterfalls." "Wow!" That's what they say in the world's most populous nation, according to a pleasant lady at the China Travel Service in Los Angeles. "'Wow' is pretty widespread, she said, "but naturally there are many variations, many dialects. In my native Shanghai, one says, Elsewhere in China, it's in Canton, specifically, it's "Din." Italians, somewhat predictably, yelp while for the Finns, it depends on the degree of anger or OPEN SUNDAY 1 1 CPenney 1984, J. C.
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