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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
The Measurement and Treatment of Suppression in Amblyopia
Published on: December 14, 2012
Effect of amblyopia on the Developmental Eye Movement test in children
Ann L Webber1, Joanne M Wood, Glen A Gole
1School of Optometry and Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. al.webber@qut.edu.au
Insights
Amblyopia, or lazy eye, did not affect children's performance on the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test under normal viewing conditions. This suggests the DEM test may not be sensitive to amblyopia's impact on eye movements.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Pediatric Vision
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Amblyopia, commonly known as lazy eye, is a developmental disorder affecting visual acuity.
- Assessing the functional impact of amblyopia on visual-motor skills is crucial for understanding its real-world effects.
- The Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test is a widely used clinical tool for evaluating eye movement control.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the functional impact of amblyopia on children's eye movement performance.
- To compare the performance of amblyopic children with age-matched controls on the DEM test.
- To explore the relationship between visual factors and DEM test outcomes in amblyopic children.
Main Methods:
- The study involved 39 children diagnosed with amblyopia and 42 age-matched controls.
- Eye movements were assessed using the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test.
- Visual acuity (VA), stereoacuity, and refractive error were recorded for all participants.
Main Results:
- No significant differences were observed in DEM test outcome measures (vertical time, horizontal time, errors, ratio) between amblyopic and control groups.
- DEM test performance did not correlate significantly with visual acuity, stereoacuity, strabismus history, or refractive error.
- These findings indicate that amblyopia did not impact DEM test results under habitual binocular viewing.
Conclusions:
- This study is the first to report on amblyopic children's performance on the DEM test.
- Under binocular viewing conditions, amblyopia does not appear to affect DEM test scores.
- The DEM test may not be a sensitive indicator of functional eye movement deficits in amblyopia when vision is combined binocularly.
Purpose:
To investigate the functional impact of amblyopia in children, the performance of amblyopic and age-matched control children on a clinical test of eye movements was compared. The influence of visual factors on test outcome measures was explored.
Methods:
Eye movements were assessed with the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test, in a group of children with amblyopia (n = 39; age, 9.1 +/- 0.9 years) of different causes (infantile esotropia, n = 7; acquired strabismus, n = 10; anisometropia, n = 8; mixed, n = 8; deprivation, n = 6) and in an age-matched control group (n = 42; age, 9.3 +/- 0.4 years). LogMAR visual acuity (VA), stereoacuity, and refractive error were also recorded in both groups.
Results:
No significant difference was found between the amblyopic and age-matched control group for any of the outcome measures of the DEM (vertical time, horizontal time, number of errors and ratio(horizontal time/vertical time)). The DEM measures were not significantly related to VA in either eye, level of binocular function (stereoacuity), history of strabismus, or refractive error.
Conclusions:
The performance of amblyopic children on the DEM, a commonly used clinical measure of eye movements, has not previously been reported. Under habitual binocular viewing conditions, amblyopia has no effect on DEM outcome scores despite significant impairment of binocular vision and decreased VA in both the better and worse eye.
