Not only amblyopic but also dominant eye in subjects with strabismus show increased saccadic latency

Amblyopia is a developmental disorder of vision usually associated with the presence of strabismus and/or anisometropia during early childhood. Subject literature has shown that both the amblyopic and fellow eyes (especially in strabismic subjects) may manifest a variety of perceptual and oculomotor deficits. Previous studies using simple saccadic responses (pro-saccades) showed an increased saccadic latency only for the amblyopic eye viewing conditions. So far, there have appeared no saccadic latency studies in strabismic amblyopia for more complex volitional saccades. In order to maximize the contribution of the central retina in the process of saccade initiation, we decided to use delayed saccadic responses in order to test the hypothesis about saccadic latency increase in both eyes in strabismic amblyopes. The results from our study have shown that saccadic latency is increased both in the dominant and amblyopic eyes. In addition, the amblyopic eye in the strabismic group showed greater increase in saccadic latency compared to an amblyopic eye in the anisometropic group from our previous study. The observed increase in saccadic reaction time for the dominant eye is novel and provides further evidence that the visual pathway associated with the dominant eye might be also impaired in strabismic amblyopia. Since an abnormal binocular input during visual system development may affect gaze stability in both eyes, we speculate that unsteady fixation accompanied with subtle perceptual deficits contribute to an increase in saccadic latency that is observed in the dominant eye. Moreover, it appears that the cortical processes related to saccade decisions are delayed both for amblyopic and fellow eyes in strabismic subjects.