~ 357 ~ ISSN Print: 2394-7500 ISSN Online: 2394-5869 Impact Factor: 8.4 IJAR 2020; 6(11): 357-360 www.allresearchjournal.com Received: 12-09-2020 Accepted: 15-10-2020 Ritu Raj Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Deemed University, Dayalbagh, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India Corresponding Author: Ritu Raj Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Deemed University, Dayalbagh, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India Prevalence of symptoms of scotopic sensitivity syndrome/Irlen syndrome Ritu Raj Abstract Scotopic sensitivity syndrome is a visual perceptual disorder characterised by light sensitivity, slow reading and difficulty in judging distance etc. The aim of the present investigation is to observe the prevalence of symptoms of scotopic sensitivity syndrome/Irlen syndrome in healthy college and school going students. A sample of 103 (n = 103) college and school going students (boys & girls) age range from 12 to 25 years from Agra and Kashipur city, India, has participated in the present study. To measure the prevalence rate of the symptoms of scotopic sensitivity, “The Irlen Syndrome (Visual Sensory Stress) Self-Test: Short” (1994) was administered. The results showed that up to 50% of the students have reported positive on the major ten symptoms of the scotopic sensitivity syndrome. Therefore, it is important for every school, college and educational professionals not to avoid or misinterpret the complaints of students regarding reading difficulties and concentration problems. It might be the symptoms of scotopic sensitivity syndrome not just an excuse to escape from study. Keywords: Scotopic sensitivity syndrome, visual perceptual disorder, light sensitivity Introduction Irlen syndrome was first revealed in the 80’s by Helen Irlen in U.S. That’s why this condition is now known as Irlen syndrome. The Irlen syndrome which is also known as visual stress, Meares-Irlen syndrome and scotopic sensitivity syndrome. Scotopic sensitivity syndrome is a perceptual processing disorder. It is not an optical problem. It is an issue with the brain’s ability to process visual information. Chouinard, Zhou, Hrybouski, Kim, Cummine (2012) [2] evaluated the data from subjects in a reading study who were diagnosed with Meares-Irlen syndrome/visual stress (MISViS). MISViS is marked by visual disruptions and somatic issues, which are remediated using coloured filters. The present case study is explaining neurobiological comparisons of MISViS versus a control group. This study included eleven English language speakers who participated in behavioral and neuroimaging versions of a language experiment with varied proportions of regular and exception words. Behavioral measures involved accuracy and response times. Neuroimaging has been conducted using a 1.5T Siemens Sonata MRI. The MISViS subject’s data was removed from the overall experiment and analysed as a case study. Impulse response functions (IRFs) and percentage of active voxels were extracted from four regions of interest: BAs 17, 18, 19, and the postcentral gyrus (PG) and two control regions (BA6 and left BA45). The results revealed that there is a significant differences between the control group and the MISViS subjects for IRF intensity in two regions (BA6 and PG) and percentage(%) of active voxels in four areas (BA17, BA19, PG, and BA6). No significant differences were noticed in left BA45 for either variable of interest. There was no significant difference found for behavioural measures. Scotopic sensitivity syndrome is more common than the heart disease and asthama, but it is often looked as the possible cause of learning difficulties in many children and adults. This visual difficulty up to 46% of children with and without learning difficulties and approximately 30% of children with ADHA, dyslexia and autism have a high risk of suffering with scotopic sensitivity syndrome. It might affect 12 to 14% of general population. Individuals might not have any leaning difficulty and even they may be gifted students. As in scotopic sensitivity syndrome, the brain continuously struggling to make an interpretation of the visual information it receives. This process of brain struggling causes various symptoms from visual distortion such as headaches, eye strain, problem with sustaining attention, International Journal of Applied Research 2020; 6(11): 357-360