Properties of the feedback loops controlling eye growth and refractive state in the chicken

Recent experiments in chickens provide evidence that axial eye growth and refractive state are guided by mechanisms sensitive to refractive error. To determine whether or not the sign of refractive error is derived from longitudinal chromatic aberration we raised chicks with spectacle lenses in monochromatic light. The eyes showed an appropriate growth response to correct for the defocus imposed by the lenses no different than in previous experiments in white light. Thus, in normally accommodating chicks chromatic cues are not necessary for emmetropization to occur. We examined the linearity of feedback loops controlling axial eye growth: positive spectacle lenses were found to inhibit axial growth very efficiently making the eyes shorter than normal whereas negative lenses had little effect on axial elongation: feedback loops for regulation of axial growth are highly nonlinear and act most efficiently on the myopic side. We found that, subsequent to a period of binocular deprivation of form vision, the refractive errors acquired are highly correlated in both eyes. Since both eyes grew without visual feedback we conclude that the gains in the feedback loops that control axial growth must be similar in both eyes. We suggest that the gains are genetically determined and are typical for each individual. Chicks made near-sighted in both eyes by "deprivation of form vision" were corrected by appropriate negative lenses. Three out of five chicks recovered from myopia despite the correction. Also two chicks that were made near-sighted in one eye recovered with no regard to the correcting lens. Three chicks remained more myopic than the correcting lens required and finally started to recover while the lens was still in place. Two out of three chicks that were made far-sighted showed recovery despite appropriate correction by positive lenses. We conclude that there must be a nonvisual mechanism highly sensitive to abnormal eye shape. During expt (4) we found unexpectedly that the development of form deprivation myopia is inhibited if no part of the retina in an animal is exposed to normal visual experience. The result indicates that some communication between both eyes exists, although form deprivation myopia itself has been shown to develop independently in both eyes.