Visual Fields and Pathways

This course is intended for beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.

After completing this section the student should be able to do the following:

• Define Visual Field
• Define Isopter
• List 2 methods of visual field testing
• Identify relative and absolute visual field defects
• Define target size and target brightness
• Define Scotoma
• State in degrees where isopters should generally fall on a kinetic visual field
• Describe which side of the brain the impulse will end up on if an object is to the left side of the patient
• Describe which side of the brain the impulse will end up on if an object is to the right side of the patient
• Describe how the nasal and temporal fibers travel back the visual pathway
• List the 4 territories in the visual pathway
• Identify diseases that may cause territory I and territory II visual field defects
• Identify types of defects found in territory I problems
• Identify types of defects found in territory II problems
• Describe the makeup of the nerve fiber layer and how that results in certain visual field defects
• List the 3 parts of the nerve fiber layer and describe their anatomy
• Identify types of defects found in territory III problems
• Identify types of defects found in territory IV problems
• Identify what type of tumor could cause a bitemporal hemianopia
• Define bitemporal hemianopia
• Define right and left homonymous hemianopia

This course should take approximately 2 hours to complete.

This course has been approved by the AOA Commission on Paraoptometric Certification (CPC) for continuing education credit for use toward paraoptometric certification renewal.