Visual representation of space in congenital and acquired strabismus

The aim of the present work was to readdress the problem of altered spatial localization in strabismic subjects and to assess whether and how spatial representation is affected by the degree of plasticity of the brain. We therefore compared targeting performance in adult subjects affected by acquired strabismus versus children affected by congenital strabismus. Our data confirm the correlation between deviation of the eye and targeting errors, but they also show that this correlation is not present when strabismus occurs early in life. We suggest that the neuronal machinery involved in the building of an internal representation of space reaches its full maturity several years after birth and that this might explain the limited differences observed in targeting errors between normal and strabismic children.