PLASTICITY OF HUMAN MOTION PROCESSING MECHANISMS FOLLOWING SURGERY FOR INFANTILE ESOTROPIA

Monocular oscillatory-motion visual evoked potentials (VEPs) were meas ured in prospective and retrospective groups of infantile esotropia pa tients who had been aligned surgically at different ages. A nasalward- temporal response bias that is present prior to surgery was reduced be low pre-surgery levels in the prospective group. Patients in the retro spective group who had been aligned before 2 yr of age showed lower le vels of response asymmetry than those who were aligned after age 2. Th e data imply that binocular motion processing mechanisms in infantile esotropia patients are capable of some degree of recovery, and that th is plasticity is restricted to a critical period of visual development .