Abstract

Adverse effects of dense congenital unilateral cataracts on the developing visual system of infants may result from the direct effects of visual deprivation and, in addition, as a result of competition with the normal eye in establishing cortical structure and function during a critical period in visual development. One approach to evaluating these two amblyogenic factors has been to compare the effects of unilateral and bilateral cataracts on visual development. The rationale is that a developing visual system with dense bilateral cataracts suffers only the effects of early visual deprivation while the developing visual system with a dense unilateral cataract suffers the effects of visual deprivation and of competition with a normal eye.

© 1997 Optical Society of America