Concern of Photosensitive Seizures Evoked by 3D Video Displays or Virtual Reality Headsets in Children: Current Perspective

Lawrence Tychsen; Liu Lin Thio

doi:10.2147/EB.S233195

Concern of Photosensitive Seizures Evoked by 3D Video Displays or Virtual Reality Headsets in Children: Current Perspective

Eye Brain. 2020 Feb 11:12:45-48. doi: 10.2147/EB.S233195. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Lawrence Tychsen^{1

2

3}, Liu Lin Thio^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
² Department of Pediatrics.
³ Department of Neuroscience.
⁴ Department of Neurology, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.

Abstract

This review assesses the risk of a photic-induced seizure in a child during viewing of 3D (binocular 3 dimensional, stereoscopic) movies or games, either on standard video displays or when wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset. Studies published by pediatric epilepsy experts emphasize the low risk of 3D viewing even for children with known photosensitive epilepsy (PSE). The low incidence of PSE is noteworthy because the number of hours devoted to 2D or 3D screen viewing and/or VR headset use by children worldwide has increased markedly over the last decade. The medical literature does not support the notion that VR headset use poses a risk for PSE.

Keywords: children; epilepsy; stereoscopic; virtual reality.

Publication types

Review