Eye position stability in amblyopia and in normal binocular vision.

PURPOSE

We investigated whether the sensory impairments of amblyopia are associated with a decrease in eye position stability (PS).

METHODS

The positions of both eyes were recorded simultaneously in three viewing conditions: binocular, monocular fellow eye viewing (right eye for controls), and monocular amblyopic eye viewing (left eye for controls). For monocular conditions, movements of the covered eye were also recorded (open-loop testing). Bivariate contour ellipses (BCEAs), representing the region over which eye positions were found 68.2% of the time, were calculated and normalized by log transformation.

RESULTS

For controls, there were no differences between eyes. Binocular PS (log(10)BCEA = -0.88) was better than monocular PS (log(10)BCEA = -0.59) indicating binocular summation, and the PS of the viewing eye was better than that of the covered eye (log(10)BCEA = -0.33). For patients, the amblyopic eye exhibited a significant decrease in PS during amblyopic eye (log(10)BCEA = -0.20), fellow eye (log(10)BCEA = 0.0004), and binocular (log(10)BCEA = -0.44) viewing. The PS of the fellow eye depended on viewing condition: it was comparable to controls during binocular (log(10)BCEA = -0.77) and fellow eye viewing (log(10)BCEA = -0.52), but it decreased during amblyopic eye viewing (log(10)BCEA = 0.08). Patients exhibited binocular summation during fellow eye viewing, but not during amblyopic eye viewing. Decrease in PS in patients was mainly due to slow eye drifts.

CONCLUSIONS

Deficits in spatiotemporal vision in amblyopia are associated with poor PS. PS of amblyopic and fellow eyes is differentially affected depending on viewing condition.