Contractile properties of extraocular muscle in Siamese cat

Siamese cats are albinos with poor visual resolution and severely impaired binocular vision. Eey muscle phyiology was studied in Siamese cats as a part of a more extensive project on eye muscle properties in cats with deficient binocular vision. Isometric contractions of the inferior oblique muscle were recorded in response to single and repetitive muscle nerve stimulation. Speed of contraction, measured as twitch contraction time, fusion frequency and rate of tetanic tension rise, was lower in Siamese than in normal cats. Eye muscles of Siamese cats fatiqued more easily to continuous activation than normal cat eye mucle. These functional changes have also been found in cats with binocular defects from monocular lid suture, but were much more marked in Siamese cats. It is suggested that the eye muscle changes represent muscular adaptations to genetically caused impairments of binocular vision and visual resolution in Siamese cats.