Visual acuity in young elite motorsport athletes: A preliminary report

Abstract 

Objectives

To determine whether elite motorsport athletes demonstrate superior levels of Visual Acuity than age and sex-matched controls.

Design

A cross-sectional observational study.

Setting

A University vision and balance laboratory.

Participants

Young male motorsport athletes from the New Zealand Elite Motorsport Academy and healthy age and sex-matched controls.

Main outcome measures

Vision performance tests comprising; Static Visual Acuity (SVA), Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA), Gaze Stabilization Test (GST), and the Perception Time Test (PTT).

Results

Motorsport athletes demonstrated superior visual acuity compared to age and sex-matched controls for all measures, and while this was not statistically significant for SVA, GST and DVA, it reached statistical significance for the PTT (p≤0.05).

Conclusions

This preliminary investigation into the visual ability of motorsport athletes demonstrated that they may have superior visual performance when compared to controls. Increased visual acuity and perception time may not only act to increase performance, but may also reduce the risk of potential injury. This study highlights the need for further research into the area of visual performance, particularly in motorsport and other high-speed sports, where such skills might be integral to performance and injury reduction.

Keywords: Visual acuity, Object recognition, Visuomotor coordination, Visual perception