Motion-Defined Form Perception in Deprivation Amblyopia

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess motion-defined form perception, including the association with clinical and sensory factors that may drive performance, in each eye of children with deprivation amblyopia due to unilateral cataract.

Methods: Coherence thresholds for orientation discrimination of motion-defined form were measured using a staircase procedure in 30 children with deprivation amblyopia and 59 age-matched controls. Visual acuity, stereoacuity, fusion, and interocular suppression were also measured. Fixation stability and fellow-eye global motion thresholds were measured in a subset of children.

Results: Motion-defined form coherence thresholds were elevated in 90% of children with deprivation amblyopia when viewing with the amblyopic eye and in 40% when viewing with the fellow eye. The deficit was similar in children with a cataract that had been visually significant at birth (congenital) and in children for whom the cataract appeared later in infancy or childhood (developmental). Poorer motion-defined form perception in amblyopic eyes was associated with poorer visual acuity, poorer binocular function, greater interocular suppression, and the presence of nystagmus. Fellow-eye deficits were not associated with any of these factors, but a temporo-nasal asymmetry for global motion perception in favor of nasalward motion suggested a general disruption in motion perception.

Conclusions: Deficits in motion-defined form perception are common in children with deprivation amblyopia and may reflect a problem in motion processing that relies on binocular mechanisms.

Figure 1.

Mean motion-defined form coherence thresholds for control (N = 58), amblyopic (N = 30), and fellow eyes (N = 30). Error bars are standard errors.

Figure 2.

Motion-defined form coherence thresholds in the congenital (N = 11), developmental (N = 19), and control groups (N = 58). Error bars are standard errors.

Figure 3.

Amblyopia participant correlations between motion-defined form coherence thresholds in each eye and: (A) visual acuity in each eye, (B) binocular function, (C) extent of interocular suppression, (D) depth of interocular suppression, (E) fixation instability in each eye. (F) Correlations between fellow-eye motion-defined form coherence thresholds and fellow-eye nasalward and temporalward global motion thresholds.