Delayed Correction for Extrapolation in Amblyopia

PURPOSE: It has been suggested that amblyopes present impaired motion extrapolation mechanisms. In this study, we used the flash grab effect (FGE), the illusory mislocalization of a briefly flashed stimulus in the direction of a reversing moving background, to investigate whether the amblyopic visual system can correct overextrapolation. METHODS: Thirteen amblyopes and 13 control subjects participated in the experiment. We measured the monocular FGE magnitude for each subject. Two spatial frequency (2 and 8 cycles), two texture configurations (square wave or sine wave), and two speed conditions (270 degrees/s and 67.5 degrees/s) were tested. In addition, control subjects were further tested in reduced luminance conditions. RESULTS: Compared with controls, amblyopes exhibited a larger FGE magnitude both in their fellow eye (FE) and amblyopic eye (AE). The FGE magnitude of their AE was significantly larger than that of the FE. In a control experiment, we observed that the FGE magnitude increases with the decreasing of the luminance. The FGE magnitude of amblyopes fall into the same range as that of controls under reduced luminance conditions. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a lager FGE in patients with amblyopia, which indicates that the amblyopic visual system does not accurately correct the overextrapolation when a moving object abruptly reverses its direction. This spatiotemporal processing deficit could be ascribed to delayed visual processing in the amblyopic visual system.