Changes in the contrast sensitivity of an amblyopic eye after losing the other normal eye.

A man aged 17 had an amblyopic left eye with central fixation and lost his normal right eye by an accident. After the accident, spontaneous improvement of the visual acuity of the amblyopic left eye was rapid. Just after the accident, overall contrast sensitivity of the left eye was considerably less than that of a normal adult. Improvement of the contrast sensitivity was recorded first at low spatial frequencies and then at high spatial frequencies. However, the contrast sensitivity at medium spatial frequencies remained less than that of a normal adult. These results suggest that lateral inhibitory processes may be relatively undeveloped or receptive fields do not develop to be as small as those of normal adults.