Spatial vision in strabismic cats

Abstract

Contrast thresholds for detection of stationary and flickering gratings were measured behaviorally for each eye of cats raised with induced convergent strabismus. The performance of the deviating eye was inferior to that of the nondeviating eye when test patterns were stationary. Flicker served to reduce the performance difference between the eyes in two cats but not in a third. These results suggest that strabismus amblyopia may not result from deficits within a single class of neurons. In all strabismic cats the contrast sensitivity of the nondeviating eye was significantly reduced relative to normal cats. These behavioral findings, including the deficits found bilaterally, correspond very well with results from cortical recordings from these and other strabismic cats presented in the preceding paper (7).