高齢者の眼球運動トレーニングの読書への効果

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to show whether or not 3 month-long eye movement training increases reading speed for the elderly. 7 elderly subjects (5 men and 2 women) participated in the study and their average age was 75.4 years. The training consisted of moving eyes horizontally, vertically and diagonally 80 times a day. Subjects carried out these ocular exercises 4 days a week for 3 months. The main results are as follows: 1. Speed of reading vertical texts increased significantly. Speed of reading horizontal texts also increased but not significantly. 2. Indicators of eye movement improved significantly but indicators of visual fields did not improve. 3. Eye movements before and after training were analyzed using an eye mark recorder. However, no clear results were obtained. 4. The results showed that 3 month-long eye movement training increased speed of eye movement in the elderly, which led to an increase in reading speed. It was suggested that the training might be especially effective for reading vertical texts.