Depth perception makes it possible for your eyes to determine distances between objects and to tell if something is near to you or far away.
Mamoru Muto / Aflo
Visual Cues and Depth Perception
Depth perception relies on visual cues. These cues are the physical signals and the brain’s interpretation of them, which are responsible for your vision as the brain and your body work together.
In order to have depth perception, you must have binocular vision, also known as stereopsis. You also rely on monocular cues from each eye separately, as well as oculomotor cues that arise from the way your eyes move together to keep focus.
Monocular Cues
Monocular cues allow for some sense of depth perception even when you don’t have two eyes working properly together. They’re still needed even when they are, offering cues including:
Binocular Cues
The most important aspect of binocular vision is having two eyes. People with vision from only one eye have to rely on other visual cues to gauge depth, and their depth perception is generally less accurate.
Not having accurate depth perception can have a major impact on your life, from early childhood learning to what jobs you’re able to do. That’s because your binocular cues are at work to create the depth perception needed for countless tasks.
Some of the cues provided through your binocular vision include:
Oculomotor Cues
These cues are based on the way your eye muscles work, and include two key features known as convergence and accommodation. Here’s what these oculomotor cues do:
These eye motions allow your eyes to work together to focus on an object with accurate depth perception.
Causes of Impaired Depth Perception
Depth perception issues can impact your life in several ways. They can:Affect a child’s ability to learnCause problems driving and navigating roads properlyPrevent an athlete from reaching their full potentialStop you from getting a job that requires good depth perception
Depth perception issues can impact your life in several ways. They can:
Depth Perception Tests
Having a comprehensive eye examination is the first step in fullyassessing your depth perception.
A cover test is used to check for strabismus, such asesotropia(in), exotropia (out), hypertropia (up) and hypotropia (down). This is an eye muscle problem where the eyes do not work well together, or when one eye is turned in, out, up, or down. If the eyes are not in perfect alignment with each other, double vision occurs, or more commonly, suppression.
If your eyes aren’t lined up, your brain will suppress the image from the misaligned eye to keep you from having double vision. As a result, you’re really only using one eye. When this happens, you will not have good depth perception.
Fine levels of depth perception are measured using tests, some of them relying on pictures or cartoons when designed for young children. These tests may include:
What to Expect During an Eye Exam
How Can I Improve Depth Perception?
It’s possible to improve your depth perception, or that of your child, but the treatment will depend on the reason for their depth perception issues.
The lowest levels of intervention include simple strategies such as:
Treatment for a specific condition such as strabismus or amblyopia, in which one eye is weaker than the other, will focus on making that eye stronger.Sometimes this can be done with eyeglasses, eye patches worn for part of the day, or eye drops. If the problem persists, some people may need surgery on their eye muscles to improve depth perception.
Researchers also are currently studying the use of virtual reality (VR) as a promising alternative in treating depth perception problems. One small study of 24 young people, divided into equal groups who played either 3D or 2D video games, found improved binocular vision among the 3D players.
More study is needed, but the use of VR may prove useful in treating amblyopia, strabismus, and other depth perception problems.
Virtual Reality in Physical Therapy
10 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Thompson L, Ji M, Rokers B, Rosenberg A.Contributions of binocular and monocular cues to motion-in-depth perception.J Vis. 2019 Mar 1;19(3):2. doi: 10.1167/19.3.2American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Depth perception.Joo SJ, Czuba TB, Cormack LK, Huk AC.Separate perceptual and neural processing of velocity- and disparity-based 3D motion signals.J Neurosci. 2016;36(42):10791-10802. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1298-16.2016.Pang Y, Tan QQ, Gabriel H, Block SS, Wang J.Application of the convergence insufficiency symptom survey in oculomotor dysfunction and accommodative insufficiency.Optom Vis Sci. 2021 Aug 1;98(8):976-982. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001756American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Amblyopia: What Is Lazy Eye?Kaur S, Jain S, Sodhi HB, Rastogi A, Kamlesh.Optic nerve hypoplasia.Oman J Ophthalmol. 2013;6(2):77–82. doi:10.4103/0974-620X.116622American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.What Is Strabismus?Zhao L, Wu H.The effect of dot size in random-dot stereograms on the results of stereoacuity measurements.BMC Ophthalmol.2020;20:253. doi: 10.1186/s12886-020-01526-6Nemours KidsHealth.Amblyopia.Levi D, Li RW.Playing 3-dimensional (3d), but not 2D video games can improve stereoacuity in neurotypical observers.Journal of Vision. 2019;19(10):130a. doi: 10.1167/19.10.130a
10 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Thompson L, Ji M, Rokers B, Rosenberg A.Contributions of binocular and monocular cues to motion-in-depth perception.J Vis. 2019 Mar 1;19(3):2. doi: 10.1167/19.3.2American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Depth perception.Joo SJ, Czuba TB, Cormack LK, Huk AC.Separate perceptual and neural processing of velocity- and disparity-based 3D motion signals.J Neurosci. 2016;36(42):10791-10802. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1298-16.2016.Pang Y, Tan QQ, Gabriel H, Block SS, Wang J.Application of the convergence insufficiency symptom survey in oculomotor dysfunction and accommodative insufficiency.Optom Vis Sci. 2021 Aug 1;98(8):976-982. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001756American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Amblyopia: What Is Lazy Eye?Kaur S, Jain S, Sodhi HB, Rastogi A, Kamlesh.Optic nerve hypoplasia.Oman J Ophthalmol. 2013;6(2):77–82. doi:10.4103/0974-620X.116622American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.What Is Strabismus?Zhao L, Wu H.The effect of dot size in random-dot stereograms on the results of stereoacuity measurements.BMC Ophthalmol.2020;20:253. doi: 10.1186/s12886-020-01526-6Nemours KidsHealth.Amblyopia.Levi D, Li RW.Playing 3-dimensional (3d), but not 2D video games can improve stereoacuity in neurotypical observers.Journal of Vision. 2019;19(10):130a. doi: 10.1167/19.10.130a
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Thompson L, Ji M, Rokers B, Rosenberg A.Contributions of binocular and monocular cues to motion-in-depth perception.J Vis. 2019 Mar 1;19(3):2. doi: 10.1167/19.3.2American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Depth perception.Joo SJ, Czuba TB, Cormack LK, Huk AC.Separate perceptual and neural processing of velocity- and disparity-based 3D motion signals.J Neurosci. 2016;36(42):10791-10802. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1298-16.2016.Pang Y, Tan QQ, Gabriel H, Block SS, Wang J.Application of the convergence insufficiency symptom survey in oculomotor dysfunction and accommodative insufficiency.Optom Vis Sci. 2021 Aug 1;98(8):976-982. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001756American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Amblyopia: What Is Lazy Eye?Kaur S, Jain S, Sodhi HB, Rastogi A, Kamlesh.Optic nerve hypoplasia.Oman J Ophthalmol. 2013;6(2):77–82. doi:10.4103/0974-620X.116622American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.What Is Strabismus?Zhao L, Wu H.The effect of dot size in random-dot stereograms on the results of stereoacuity measurements.BMC Ophthalmol.2020;20:253. doi: 10.1186/s12886-020-01526-6Nemours KidsHealth.Amblyopia.Levi D, Li RW.Playing 3-dimensional (3d), but not 2D video games can improve stereoacuity in neurotypical observers.Journal of Vision. 2019;19(10):130a. doi: 10.1167/19.10.130a
Thompson L, Ji M, Rokers B, Rosenberg A.Contributions of binocular and monocular cues to motion-in-depth perception.J Vis. 2019 Mar 1;19(3):2. doi: 10.1167/19.3.2
American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Depth perception.
Joo SJ, Czuba TB, Cormack LK, Huk AC.Separate perceptual and neural processing of velocity- and disparity-based 3D motion signals.J Neurosci. 2016;36(42):10791-10802. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1298-16.2016.
Pang Y, Tan QQ, Gabriel H, Block SS, Wang J.Application of the convergence insufficiency symptom survey in oculomotor dysfunction and accommodative insufficiency.Optom Vis Sci. 2021 Aug 1;98(8):976-982. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001756
American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.Amblyopia: What Is Lazy Eye?
Kaur S, Jain S, Sodhi HB, Rastogi A, Kamlesh.Optic nerve hypoplasia.Oman J Ophthalmol. 2013;6(2):77–82. doi:10.4103/0974-620X.116622
American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart.What Is Strabismus?
Zhao L, Wu H.The effect of dot size in random-dot stereograms on the results of stereoacuity measurements.BMC Ophthalmol.2020;20:253. doi: 10.1186/s12886-020-01526-6
Nemours KidsHealth.Amblyopia.
Levi D, Li RW.Playing 3-dimensional (3d), but not 2D video games can improve stereoacuity in neurotypical observers.Journal of Vision. 2019;19(10):130a. doi: 10.1167/19.10.130a
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