TY - JOUR
T1 - Maldevelopment of visual motion processing in humans who had strabismus with onset in infancy
AU - Tychsen, L.
AU - Lisberger, S. G.
PY - 1986
Y1 - 1986
N2 - Binocular experience in infancy is necessary for the normal development of the visual cortex. However, it is not known whether binocular experience also affects the processing of specific kinds of visual information such as motion. The authors now report deficits in visual motion processing in 7 adult humans who lacked binocularity in infancy because of strabismus. As probes for assessing visual motion processing, the authors used the initiation of smooth pursuit eye movements and the judgement of target velocity independent of eye movement. Monocular viewing was essential to reveal the deficits. For horizontal pursuit, strabismic subjects showed nasal-temporal asymmetries, such that nasally directed target motion evoked more vigorous pursuit. For vertical pursuit, strabismics showed up-down asymmetries, such that upward target motion evoked more vigorous pursuit. In addition, strabismics had abnormalities in the relative effectiveness of different parts of the visual field for initiating both horizontal and vertical pursuit. Psychophysical judgements of horizontal target velocity revealed deficits analogous to those seen in horizontal pursuit. Nasally directed stimulus motion was perceived as faster than temporally directed motion, even when the 2 directions of motion were actually presented at the same speed. The magnitude of the motion processing deficits in each subject was correlated with the severity of the clinical signs of the strabismus. The results suggest 2 possible interpretations. Maldevelopments of visual motion processing may cause strabismus in infancy, or alternatively, strabismus in the critical period for visual development may cause a maldevelopment of visual motion processing.
AB - Binocular experience in infancy is necessary for the normal development of the visual cortex. However, it is not known whether binocular experience also affects the processing of specific kinds of visual information such as motion. The authors now report deficits in visual motion processing in 7 adult humans who lacked binocularity in infancy because of strabismus. As probes for assessing visual motion processing, the authors used the initiation of smooth pursuit eye movements and the judgement of target velocity independent of eye movement. Monocular viewing was essential to reveal the deficits. For horizontal pursuit, strabismic subjects showed nasal-temporal asymmetries, such that nasally directed target motion evoked more vigorous pursuit. For vertical pursuit, strabismics showed up-down asymmetries, such that upward target motion evoked more vigorous pursuit. In addition, strabismics had abnormalities in the relative effectiveness of different parts of the visual field for initiating both horizontal and vertical pursuit. Psychophysical judgements of horizontal target velocity revealed deficits analogous to those seen in horizontal pursuit. Nasally directed stimulus motion was perceived as faster than temporally directed motion, even when the 2 directions of motion were actually presented at the same speed. The magnitude of the motion processing deficits in each subject was correlated with the severity of the clinical signs of the strabismus. The results suggest 2 possible interpretations. Maldevelopments of visual motion processing may cause strabismus in infancy, or alternatively, strabismus in the critical period for visual development may cause a maldevelopment of visual motion processing.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0022902817&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/jneurosci.06-09-02495.1986
DO - 10.1523/jneurosci.06-09-02495.1986
M3 - Article
C2 - 3746419
AN - SCOPUS:0022902817
SN - 0270-6474
VL - 6
SP - 2495
EP - 2508
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 9
ER -