Visual Field Tests
Good peripheral vision is essential to everyday life eg driving. Testing the your peripheral and central vision area (visual field) can help to detect neurological conditions and glaucoma.
Since the optic nerve travels from the front of the skull to the back any compression will result in a loss of visual field. By the shape and size of the loss and whether it is in one or both eyes it can be determimed where the lesion affecting the optic nerve is situated.
The most important area is the central 30 degrees or so. There are several methods of testing the visual field; most involve the patient looking into an illuminated bowl and detecting little lights randomly flashed into the field of vision.
