Psykinematix: A New Psychophysical Tool for Investigating Visual Impairment due to Neural Dysfunctions

Abstract

In this paper, we first review the most common neurodegenerative diseases and mental disorders, and their effects on visual functions. Secondly, we present Psykinematix, a new Mac OS X software package dedicated to visual psychophysics. Because it does not require any programming skill, and provides an intuitive GUI that abstracts most of the inherent difficulties, this new tool provides effortless means to create and run the complex psychophysical paradigms developed by vision scientists. Finally, we discuss how Psykinematix could help clinician researchers replicate fundamental studies, and better investigate visual functions that are impaired by aging and neural dysfunctions, such as shape and motion processing.