Negative vergence training in humans

Two healthy subjects (male and female, ages 22 and 25 years) spent 50 h over a period of 7 consecutive weeks training the negative vergence system. The training was performed in two 45-min daily sessions, usually immediately before and after the workday. The training was exclusively negative vergence training using devices such as variable vectograms, the aperture rule, the synoptophore, and loose or bar prisms. An extensive examination of the visual systems before, after, and periodically during the training demonstrated that the negative vergences increased at distance by 5.0 delta and at near by 9.1 delta (using hand-held prisms, bar prisms, and the synoptophore). The phorias of both subjects became more exophoric or less esophoric at both distance and near by 3.6 delta (using average of changes on the cover test, von Graefe subjective phoria technique, and the synoptophore). A haploscope equipped with a coincidence optometer showed only small increases in vergence amplitude but confirmed that the lag of accommodation became more stable after the training than it was before. Other testing suggested that the negative relative accommodation, the angle of deviation at both distance and near, positive vergences, the associated phoria, and the slope of the fixation disparity curve changed significantly over the period of training. I conclude that negative vergence training can increase the negative vergence capabilities and also affect the phoria position of the eyes via feed-back into the slow vergence system.