Neuroimaging of amblyopia and binocular vision: a review
Open Access
- 6 August 2014
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
- Vol. 8, 62
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2014.00062
Abstract
Amblyopia is a cerebral visual impairment considered to derive from abnormal visual experience (e.g., strabismus, anisometropia). Amblyopia, first considered as a monocular disorder, is now often seen as a primarily binocular disorder resulting in more and more studies examining the binocular deficits in the patients. The neural mechanisms of amblyopia are not completely understood even though they have been investigated with electrophysiological recordings in animal models and more recently with neuroimaging techniques in humans. In this review, we summarise the current knowledge about the brain regions that underlie the visual deficits associated with amblyopia with a focus on binocular vision using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The first studies focused on abnormal responses in the primary and secondary visual areas whereas recent evidence show that there are also deficits at higher levels of the visual pathways within the parieto-occipital and temporal cortices. These higher level areas are part of the cortical network involved in 3D vision from binocular cues. Therefore, reduced responses in these areas could be related to the impaired binocular vision in amblyopic patients. Promising new binocular treatments might at least partially correct the activation in these areas. Future neuroimaging experiments could help to characterise the brain response changes associated with these treatments and help devise them.Keywords
This publication has 121 references indexed in Scilit:
- Retinal nerve fibre layer and macular thickness in amblyopia as measured by spectral-domain optical coherence tomographyBritish Journal of Ophthalmology, 2011
- The clinical profile of amblyopia in children younger than 3 years of ageJournal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, 2010
- Neural Modulation by Binocular Disparity Greatest in Human Dorsal Visual StreamJournal of Neurophysiology, 2010
- Parietal regions processing visual 3D shape extracted from disparityNeuroImage, 2009
- Deficient responses from the lateral geniculate nucleus in humans with amblyopiaEuropean Journal of Neuroscience, 2009
- Cortical Folding Patterns and Predicting CytoarchitectureCerebral Cortex, 2007
- Retinotopic maps and foveal suppression in the visual cortex of amblyopic adultsJournal Of Physiology-London, 2007
- Anterior Regions of Monkey Parietal Cortex Process Visual 3D ShapeNeuron, 2007
- Prevalence and Outcomes of Childhood Visual DisordersOphthalmic Epidemiology, 2005
- Experiments to study recovery of lateral geniculate nucleus cell size following monocular lid closure and reverse suture in infant monkeysDevelopmental Brain Research, 1988