Wilson, Rachel L, Paterson, Kevin B, McGowan, Victoria et al. · Frontiers in psychology · 2018 · DOI
This study tested reading and vision abilities in 27 people with ME/CFS and compared them to healthy controls. Researchers found that people with ME/CFS read more slowly and had greater difficulty reading when text was crowded together, even though their basic vision was similar to controls. These findings suggest that vision-related reading problems in ME/CFS are real and measurable, not just imagined.
This research provides objective evidence that reading difficulties reported by ME/CFS patients are measurable physiological symptoms rather than psychological complaints, potentially validating patient experiences. Understanding vision-related reading impairment may help clinicians better support patients and could guide development of targeted management strategies.
This study does not establish the biological cause of visual crowding deficits or explain why ME/CFS affects reading performance at a physiological level. It cannot determine whether these vision problems are primary neurological symptoms or secondary effects of other ME/CFS-related impairments, and the small sample size limits generalizability to all ME/CFS populations.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Wilson, Rachel L, Paterson, Kevin B, McGowan, Victoria, & Hutchinson, Claire V (2018). Visual Aspects of Reading Performance in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).. Frontiers in psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01468
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-wilson-2018-visual-aspects,
author = {Wilson, Rachel L and Paterson, Kevin B and McGowan, Victoria and Hutchinson, Claire V},
title = {Visual Aspects of Reading Performance in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01468},
note = {PubMed: 30174633},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wilson-2018-visual-aspects},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/wilson-2018-visual-aspects
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