The effects of smoking (nicotine nystagmus) on Dynamic Visual Acuity

Abstract

The effects of smoking on the resolution of moving targets were assessed under a range of velocity and duration conditions for both heavy and light smokers. In no instance was the smoking found to impair dynamic acuity. It was concluded that the nicotine nystagmus reported by previous investigators has little practical impact on a dynamic acuity task and, by implication, on real-world tasks involving the resolution of moving targets. Within the last decade, dynamic visual acuity (OVA), an individual's ability to resolve a moving target, has been of increasing interest to researchers. Although research in this ability can be traced back to the work of Ludvigh and Miller in the late 1940s and 1950s (e.g., Ludvigh, 1949; Miller, 1958; Miller & Ludvigh , 1962), OVA research over the last 30 years has been rather sporadic. Nevertheless , this work has clearly determined that OVA is relatively independent of tradit ional static acuity measures (see Morrison, 1980) and may be related to many real-world activities in which the resolution of moving targets plays a crucial role. These activities include driving (Henderson