Other symptoms of AMD include distortion of vision and blind spots (especially in and around the central visual field).Other signs and symptoms of macular degeneration include:

Distorted vision in the form of metamorphopsia, in which a grid of straight lines appears wavy and parts of the grid may appear blank: Patients often first notice this when looking at things like miniblinds in their home or telephone poles while driving. There may also be central scotomas, shadows or missing areas of vision
Slow recovery of visual function after exposure to bright light (photostress test)
Visual acuity drastically decreasing (two levels or more), e.g. : 20/20 to 20/80
Blurred vision: Those with nonexudative (wet) macular degeneration may be asymptomatic or notice a gradual loss of central vision, whereas those with exudative (dry) macular degeneration often notice a rapid onset of vision loss (often caused by leakage and bleeding of abnormal blood vessels). Trouble discerning colors, specifically dark ones from dark ones and light ones from light ones
A loss in contrast sensitivity
Formed visual hallucinations and flashing lights have also been associated with severe visual loss secondary to wet AMD Macular degeneration by itself will not lead to total blindness. For that matter, only a small number of people with visual impairment are totally blind. In almost all cases, some vision remains, mainly peripheral. Other complicating conditions may lead to such an acute condition (severe stroke or trauma, untreated glaucoma, etc.
), but few macular degeneration patients experience total visual loss.The area of the macula constitutes only about 2.1% of the retina, and the remaining 97.9% (the peripheral field) remains unaffected by the disease. Even though the macula provides such a small fraction of the visual field, almost half of the visual cortex is devoted to processing macular information.In addition, people with dry macular degeneration often do not experience any symptoms but can experience gradual onset of blurry vision in one or both eyes. People with wet macular degeneration may experience acute onset of visual symptoms. Risk factors
Key risk factors are age, race/ethnicity, smoking, and family history. Advanced age is the strongest predictor of AMD, particularly over 50. Race/Ethnicity
As illustrated by the Figure in this section, derived from data presented by the National Eye Institute of the United States (https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-health-data-and-statistics/age-related-macular-degeneration-amd-data-and-statistics/age-related-macular-degeneration-amd-tables), among those over 80 years of age, White individuals are more than 6-fold more likely to develop AMD than Black or Hispanic individuals. Thus, white background is a major risk factor for AMD. In Caucasian (White) skin, there is a specific group of polymorphic genes (with single nucleotide alterations) that encode for enzymes and transcription factors responsible for the early steps (including the first step, formation of L-DOPA from the amino acid tyrosine) of the melanin synthesis pathway. Many of these enzymes and transcription factors are reviewed by Markiewicz and Idowu. Also, as reviewed by Sturm et al.