Visual Acuity in Strabismic Amblyopia Under Monocular and Binocular Conditions

Abstract

Strabismic amblyopia is one of several sensory adaptations produced by a malalignment of the visual axes. The disparity of images on corresponding portions of the two retinas during binocular vision leads to active inhibition (suppression) of images formed in the deviated eye. Under conditions yet unknown, suppression that is originally present only in binocular vision may develop into the complex sensory-motor syndrome of amblyopia, thus persisting even when the sound eye is covered. If the functions of the amblyopic eye are tested when the sound eye is closed, the resultant monocular situation is different from that under which the amblyopic eye functions in everyday seeing. Since the binocular problem that originally led to the development of amblyopia is thereby temporarily suspended, one would expect a decrease of the visual inhibition under these circumstances. The present study was undertaken in order to investigate the influence of different types of stimulation of