Suprathreshold contrast perception in functional amblyopia.

Three experiments were conducted to investigate suprathreshold contrast perception of a group of strabismic and anisometropic amblyopes. In the first experiment, simple reaction-time was measured as a function of the contrast of sinusoidal gratings. At all contrast levels, the amblyopic eyes showed prolonged reaction-times compared to the non-amblyopic eyes. In the second experiment, the perceived contrast of suprathreshold sinusoidal gratings was measured using an interocular successive matching paradigm. The third experiment compared perceived contrast of the amblyopic and non-amblyopic eye by contrast magnitude estimation. The results of the matching and magnitude estimation experiments showed that while amblyopic observers show large losses of contrast sensitivity at threshold, at suprathreshold contrast levels perceived contrast is essentially normal or near normal in the amblyopic eye. Taken together, these experiments suggest that: 1) the amblyopic eye has a higher contrast gain than the non-amblyopic eye, and 2) the amblyopic eye shows prolonged response latencies. Similar results can be obtained in normal observers under conditions of peripheral viewing and noise masking.