PATTERN OF OCULAR DOMINANCE COLUMNS IN HUMAN STRIATE CORTEX IN STRABISMIC AMBLYOPIA

Previous experiments in animals have shown that early unilateral eyeli d suture, a model of amblyopia induced by cataract, causes shrinkage o f ocular dominance columns serving the deprived eye in the striate cor tex. It is unknown whether the ocular dominance columns are affected i n amblyopia produced by strabismus. We examined specimens of striate c ortex obtained postmortem from a 79-year-old woman with a history of a mblyopia in her left eye (20/800) since age 2 from accommodative esotr opia. Four years prior to her death, she suffered an ischemic infarct of the left optic disc. This injury to the left optic disc made it pos sible to label the ocular dominance columns using cytochrome oxidase h istochemistry. The pattern of ocular dominance columns was reconstruct ed throughout most of the right striate cortex. No shrinkage of column s was found. In the left cortex only half the column mosaic was labell ed, because the patient had some residual vision in the temporal retin a of her left eye. The columns within the labelled portion of the over all mosaic appeared normal. These findings indicate that shrinkage of ocular dominance columns does not occur in humans with amblyopia cause d by accommodative esotropia. The ocular dominance columns are probabl y no longer susceptible to shrinkage at the age when most children wit h this condition begin to develop amblyopia.