Sensitivity to global form in glass patterns after early visual deprivation in humans.
To compare the effects of early monocular versus early binocular deprivation on the perception of global form, we assessed sensitivity to global concentric structure in Glass patterns with varying ratios of paired signal dots to noise dots. Children who had been deprived by dense congenital cataracts in one (n=10) or both (n=8) eyes performed significantly worse than comparably aged children without eye problems. Consistent with previous results on sensitivity to global motion [Vision Research 42 (2002) 169], thresholds in the deprived eyes were significantly better after monocular deprivation than after binocular deprivation of comparable duration, even when there had been little patching of the nondeprived eye after monocular deprivation. Together, the results indicate that the competitive interactions between a deprived and nondeprived eye evident in the primary visual cortex can co-occur with complementary interactions in extrastriate cortex that enable a relative sparing of some visual functions after early monocular deprivation.
Lewis
Terri L
TL
Department of Ophthalmology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada M5G 1X8. lewistl@mcmaster.ca
Ellemberg
Dave
D
Maurer
Daphne
D
Wilkinson
Fran
F
Wilson
Hugh R
HR
Dirks
Melanie
M
Brent
Henry P
HP
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002386:Cataract / Q000151:congenital / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D015348:Vision, Binocular; D015349:Vision, Monocular