Evaluation of relationship between color discrimination ability, stereoscopic acuity and contrast sensitivity in healthy individuals

To evaluate color discrimination ability (CDA), stereoscopic acuity (SA), and contrast sensitivity (CS) by considering age factor and educational level in healthy individuals. This study was design as a prospective study.

The study included 43 binocular healthy individuals (31 males; mean age, 25.79±6.83 years) without a color vision deficiency who were aged between ≥18 years and ≤40 years and had an educational level of secondary education or higher. The following tests/system were used: the Farnsworth Munsell 100 (FM100) hue test for CDA; the TNO and Titmus tests for SA; the automatized ClearChart® 2 Digital Acuity System for CS. Total error score (TES), blue-yellow (b-y) local error score (LES) and red-green (r-g) LES of the FM100 hue test were 25.40±20.89, 14.26±12.09 and 10.53±10.13, respectively. Stereo test scores were 52.33±43.35 arcsec and 43.02±9.14 arcsec for the TNO and Titmus tests, respectively. The logCS score was 2.5±0 at low- and mid-spatial frequencies and 3.84±1.92 at high-spatial frequency. In the correlation analyses, TNO test score was positively correlated with TES, b-y LES, and r-g LES (r=0.339, p=0.021; r=0.309, p=0.036; and r=0.308, p=0.037, respectively). The Titmus test score was positively correlated with TES, b-y LES, and r-g LES (r=0.575, p<0.001; r=0.539, p<0.001; and r=0.504 p<0.001, respectively).

According to the study results, SA increased with increasing CDA and that b-y and r-g color zones contributed to this increment in the healthy adult group. Future large-scale studies would further illuminate both the topic and the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms.

Keywords: Color vision, stereoscopic vision, contrast sensitivity, Farnsworth Munsell 100 hue test, TNO test, Titmus test