Visual evoked responses in strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia: effects of check size and retinal locus

Sinusoidally modulated checker board patterns were used to investigate the effects of check size and retinal location on the "steady-state" visual evoked response (VER) of strabismic and anisometropic amblyopes. Fourier analysis of the averaged VER suggests that the waveforms produced by these techniques are complex, and that they consist of a fundamental component plus 1 or more harmonics. In all of the subjects, the VERs elicited from the amblyopic eyes by small checks in a 3.5-deg disc were significantly smaller in amplitude than those from the nonamblyopic eyes, whereas the responses to larger checks were far more similar. Large annular targets were quite effective in eliciting VERs from the peripheries of both amblyopic and nonamblyopic eyes, and these responses were at times as large as, or larger than, those produced by the central targets. Statistically no significant differences were found between the responses of the amblyopic and the nonamblyopic eyes to the annular targets.