Drilling into the functional significance of stereopsis: the impact of stereoscopic information on surgical performance.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

One suggested advantage of human binocular vision is the facilitation of sophisticated motor control behaviours via stereopsis - but little empirical evidence exists to support this suggestion. We examined the functional significance of stereopsis by exploring whether stereopsis is used to perform a highly skilled real-world motor task essential for the occupational practice of dentistry.

Methods

We used a high fidelity virtual reality simulator to study how dentists' performance is affected by the removal of horizontal retinal image disparities under direct and indirect (mirror) observation. Thirteen qualified dentists performed a total of four different dental tasks under non-stereoscopic and stereoscopic vision conditions, with two levels of task complexity (direc

SUBMITTER: Al-Saud LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5519940 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature