Both strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia are characterized by a
reduction in visual acuity, however, recent psychophysical investigations
of human amblyopes have revealed substantial differences in the visual
characteristics of these two types of amblyopia. Although monkeys reared
with either artificially-induced anisometropia or strabismus exhibit
reduced spatial resolving capacities, it has not been deteremined if the
visual characteristics of these amblyopic monkeys are similar to those
manifested by humans with these two types of amblyopia. In the proposed
study rhesus monkeys will be subjected to three rearing procedures
(optically-induced anisometropia, optically-induced strabismus, and
surgically-induced exotropia) which have previously been shown to produce a
clinically-representative degree of amblyopia. Psychophysical techniques
will be used to determine the effects of these rearing procedures on the
monkeys' 1) spatiotemporal transfer function, 2) letter acuity as a
function of the degree of contour interaction (i.e., "crowding"), and 3)
spatial sense for suprathreshold stimuli (vernier acuity and displacement
thresholds). These behavioral investigations will determine the adequacy
of these animals as models for strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia.
Subsequently, occlusion thereapy will be initiated in some experimental
monkeys to determine if any of the induced abnormalities can be
remediated. Histological and neurophysiological techniques will be used 1)
to investigate the effects of the rearing procedure on the response
characteristics of neurons in the striate cortex and on neuronal cell size
in the lateral geniculate nucleus, 2) to evaluate the effects of occlusion
therapy, and 3) to test the hypothesis that different neural loses are
associated with strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia. The results of
this study will provide a more complete understanding of amblyopia and thus
be helpful in the development of successful treatment procedures.
Public Health Relevance Statement
Data not available.
NIH Spending Category
No NIH Spending Category available.
Project Terms
amblyopia anisometropia disease /disorder model electrophysiology eye coordination disorder histology infant animal lateral geniculate body model design /development neurophysiology psychophysics single cell analysis vision tests visual cortex visual pathways visual stimulus visual threshold
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