title: Interocular suppression in normal and amblyopic vision: spatio-temporal properties.
abstract: We measured the properties of interocular suppression in strabismic amblyopes and compared these to dichoptic masking in binocularly normal observers. We used a dichoptic version of the well-established probed-sinewave paradigm that measured sensitivity to a brief target stimulus (one of four letters to be discriminated) in the amblyopic eye at different times relative to a suppression-inducing mask in the fixing eye. This was done using both sinusoidal steady state and transient approaches. The suppression-inducing masks were either modulations of luminance or contrast (full field, just overlaying the target, or just surrounding the target). Our results were interpreted using a descriptive model that included contrast gain control and spatio-temporal filtering prior to excitatory binocular combination. The suppression we measured, other than in magnitude, was not fundamentally different from normal dichoptic masking: lowpass spatio-temporal properties with similar contributions from both surround and overlay suppression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. pichun_huang@mail.ncku.edu.tw
authors.forename: Pi-Chun
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Hess
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000550:Amblyopia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013285:Strabismus / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D015348:Vision, Binocular / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult