The effect of unilateral mean luminance on binocular combination in normal and amblyopic vision

Luminance plays a modulating role in the processes of several visual tasks, which in turn provides significant information for the understanding of visual processing. Here, using a binocular phase combination paradigm, we studied the effect of unilateral changes in mean luminance on binocular combination in both normal and amblyopic vision. We found, in normal observers, attenuation of one eye's stimulus luminance with neutral density filters produces binocular phase combination similar to those of amblyopic subjects. Correspondingly, in amblyopic observers, reduction of the fellow eye's stimulus luminance produces binocular phase combination similar to those of normal subjects. These phenomena could be explained by an attenuated contribution of the filtered eye to the binocular phase percept due to reduced gain-control. The findings have major implications both for the study of binocular combination and for amblyopia treatment.