The shift in sensory eye dominance from short-term monocular deprivation exhibits no dependence on test spatial frequency

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that short-term monocular deprivation induces a shift in sensory eye dominance in favor of the deprived eye. Yet, how short-term monocular deprivation modulates sensory eye dominance across spatial frequency is not clear. To address this issue, we conducted a study to investigate the dependence of short-term monocular deprivation effect on test spatial frequency. METHODS: Ten healthy young adults (age: 24.7 ± 1.7 years, four males) with normal vision participated. We deprived their dominant eye with a translucent patch for 2.5 h. The interocular contrast ratio (dominant eye/non-dominant eye, i.e., the balance point [BP]), which indicates the contribution that the two eyes make to binocular combination, was measured using a binocular orientation combination task. We assessed if BPs at 0.5, 4 or 6 cycles/degree (c/d) change as a result of monocular deprivation. Different test spatial frequency conditions were conducted on three separate days in a random fashion. RESULTS: We compared the BPs at 0.5, 4 and 6 c/d before and after monocular deprivation. The BPs were found to be significantly affected by deprivation, where sensory eye dominance shift to the deprived eye (F(1.86, 16.76) = 33.09, P < 0.001). The changes of BP were consistent at 0.5, 4, and 6 c/d spatial frequencies (F(2,18) = 0.15, P = 0.57). CONCLUSION: The sensory eye dominance plasticity induced by short-term deprivation is not dependent on test spatial frequency, suggesting it could provide a practical solution for amblyopic therapy that was concerned with the binocular outcome. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40662-022-00303-4.