Induced vergence-accommodation conflict reduces cognitive performance in the Stroop test

Interaction mechanisms between cognition and binocular motor control in reading saccades remain unclear. In this study we examine objectively saccades and fixations parameters during the Stroop test, involving three different levels of cognitive demand (reading, color denomination and interference). In addition, we experimentally induce accommodation and vergence conflicts during the different tasks. Twenty-one visually normal subjects (age 20.9 ± 1.45) performed the Stroop test in three different randomized conditions: a control normal viewing condition, a 16Δ base-out prism condition, and a −2.50D spherical lenses condition. Prisms and spherical lenses induced Vergence-Accommodation conflict. Eye movements were recorded with the Eyeseecam video-oculography device. The results show (1) longer fixation duration in the interference task than in the denomination task, and shorter fixation duration in the reading task; (2) a higher interference effect in the conflict induced conditions compared to the control condition; (3) a lower tolerance to prism induced conflict, with a higher destabilization of the binocular motor control of saccades and fixations. This suggests an interplay between vergence accommodation conflict and cognitive load: tolerance to the conflict seems to be lower in the more cognitively demanding interference Stroop task. The results consolidate the link between cognition and high quality of single binocular vision.