The functional impact of amblyopia and its associated conditions : an investigation of the potential disability associated with amblyopia and its associated conditions.

Description

In the past decade, considerable attention has been paid to examination of the impact of
amblyopia, and strabismus, upon the lives of the individuals. Although an extensive
amount of literature exists regarding amblyopia and its associated visual defects, little is
known about the contribution of the amblyopic eye in the habitual viewing condition
(i.e. both eyes viewing). The purpose of these studies was to determine whether
amblyopes are disadvantaged in the performance of tasks under habitual viewing
conditions, highlighting any functional differences which may exist as a consequence of
amblyopia. Secondly, the work aimed to investigate whether the amblyopic eye
contributes to the habitual performance of these tasks.
A simple light detection task, in a dichoptic arrangement based upon blue/yellow
stimuli viewed through yellow filters, was used to investigate the above two aims and
investigate the degree of interocular suppression in amblyopic participants. Using a 3D
motion analysis system performance was assessed for an obstacle crossing task
(adaptive gait) and a task of reaching for and grasping of an isolated object and in a
¿cluttered¿ environment. Fine motor skills were assessed in a threading a needle task.
On the whole it was found that amblyopes are not disadvantaged under habitual viewing
conditions, and in cases where differences were found to exist this appeared to be in
tasks requiring speed and accuracy. Consistently across all studies it was found that the
amblyopic eye contributed in a positive manner, thus, as in visual normals, two eyes are
better than one.

Links & Downloads

1. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/5415

Tags

Amblyopia

Strabismus

Anisometropia

Binocular vision

Stereopsis

Human movement

Suppression

Additional Fields

Identifer	oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/5415
Date	January 2010
Creators	Panesar, Gurvinder K.
Contributors	Barrett, Brendan T., Pacey, Ian E., Buckley, John
Publisher	University of Bradford, School of Optometry and Vision Science
Source Sets	Bradford Scholars
Language	English
Detected Language	English
Type	Thesis, doctoral, PhD
Rights	<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>.