Amblyopic binocular imbalance quantified by the dichoptic contrast ordering test and dichoptic letters test

Abstract

In amblyopia, abnormal binocular interactions lead to an overwhelming dominance of one eye. One mechanism implied in this imbalance is the suppression between the inputs from the two eyes. This interocular suppression involves two components: an overlay suppression and a surround suppression. Here, we propose a new method for measuring surround suppression which has been demonstrated in both strabismic and anisometropic amblyopes, based on a novel interocular contrast scaling task, suitable for use as a clinical tool. We compare the results obtained with this method against those from another method designed to measure overlay suppression: the Dichoptic Letter Test. We find a strong correlation between the results obtained with the two methods. Additionally, we observe strong correlations between the imbalance measured with the two tests and visual acuity and stereopsis. Altogether this suggests that amblyopic suppression is spatially broad and has direct relevance in global vision. So our new method is a relevant, clinically suitable tool to track the disease state in amblyopia.