Abstract
Normal humans for whom the positions and movements of the two eyes are constrained to be yoked together are able to extract rich binocular sensory information from the environment. Humans with strabismus are deficient in extracting some of this information. Studies of strabismus in non-human primates can augment what has been learned from humans about relationships between strabismus and sensory binocular function. For example, speculation about the role of binocular vision in primate evolution can help us understand why it is that the advantages of sensory binocular function outweigh the disadvantages of having the positions of the two eyes yoked together. Physiological optics assessments of fixation patterns and accommodative responses in monkeys provide information about how the brain accomplishes and coordinates motor and sensory binocular functions, and sets the stage for determining underlying neural mechanisms responsible for this coordination. Finally, a developmental perspective, concerned with events that occur during an early sensitive period in the life span of an infant primate, can help us understand how nature and nurture interact to set up this complex neural system in normal individuals, and how this process is disrupted in conditions such as strabismus.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Marr D, Poggio T . A computational theory of human stereo vision. Proc Soc Lond B 1979; 204: 301–28.
Longuet-Higgins FRS . The reconstruction of a plane surface from two perspective projections. Proc R Soc Lond B 1986; 227: 399–410.
Julesz B . Stereoscopic vision. Vision Res 1986; 26: 1601–12.
Lehky SR, Sejnowski TJ . Neural model of stereoacuity and depth interpolation based on a distributed representation of stereo disparity. J Neurosci 1990; 10: 2281–99.
Blake R, Wilson HR . Neural models of stereoscopic vision. Trends Neurosci 1991; 14: 445–52.
Gibson JJ . The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.
Lee DN . The optic flow field: the foundation of vision. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 1980; 290: 169–79.
Buxton BF, Buxton H . Monocular depth perception from optical flow by space time signal processing. Proc R Soc Lond B 1983; 218: 27–47.
Koenderink JJ . Optic flow. Vision Res 1986; 26: 161–80.
Polyak S . The vertebrate visual system. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957.
Walls GL . The vertebrate eye and its adaptive radiation. New York: Hafner, 1963. (Reprinted from the Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 1942.)
Ingle D . A possible behavioral correlate of delayed retinal discharge in Anurans. Vision Res 1971; 11: 167–8.
Ingle D . Evolutionary perspectives on the function of the optic tectum. Brain Behav Evol 1973; 8: 211–3.
Ingle D . Functions of subcortical visual systems in vertebrates and the evolution of higher visual mechanisms. In: Cronly-Dillon JR, general editor. Vision and visual dysfunction, vol 2, Evolution of the eye and visual system. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1991: 152–64.
Helmholtz H, von . Handbuch der physiologischen Optik. Hamburg: Voss, 1866. (Transl from German by Southall JPC. 1924/1925. Republished as one volume, New York: Dover, 1962.)
Regan D . Depth from motion and motion-in-depth. In: Cronly-Dillon JR, general editor. Vision and visual dysfunction, vol 3, Binocular vision. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1991: 137–69.
Sobel EC . Depth perception by motion parallax and paradoxical parallax in the locus. Naturwissenschaften 1990; 77: 241–3.
Poggio GF, Talbot WH . Mechanisms of static and dynamic stereopsis in foveal cortex of rhesus monkey. J Physiol (Lond) 1981; 315: 469–92.
Shimojo S, Silverman GH, Nakayama K . An occlusion-related mechanism of depth perception based on motion and interocular sequence. Nature 1988; 333: 265–7.
Boothe RG . Experimentally induced and naturally occurring monkey models of human amblyopia. In: Berkley MA, Stebbins WC, editors. Comparative perception, vol 1, Basic mechanisms. New York: Wiley, 1990: 461–86.
Boothe RG, Quick MW, Joosse MV, Abbas MA, Anderson DC . Accessory lateral rectus orbital geometry in normal and naturally strabismic monkeys. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1990; 31: 1168–74.
Beverly KI, Regan D . Evidence for the existence of neural mechanisms selectively sensitive to the direction of movement in space. J Physiol (Lond) 1973; 235: 17–29.
Beverly KI, Regan D . The relationship between discrimination and sensitivity in the perception of motion in depth. J Physiol (Lond) 1975; 249: 387–98.
Richards W . Response functions for sine- and square-wave modulations of disparity. J Opt Soc Am 1972; 62: 907–11.
Jampolsky A . Unequal visual inputs and strabismus management: a comparison of human and animal strabismus. In: Symposium on strabismus: Transactions of the New Orleans Academy of Ophthalmology. St Louis: Mosby, 1978: 358–492.
Kiorpes L, Boothe R . Naturally occurring strabismus in monkeys (Macaca nemestrina). Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1981; 20: 257–63.
Kiorpes L, Boothe R, Carlson M, Alfi D . Frequency of naturally occurring strabismus in monkeys. J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus 1985; 22: 60–4.
Quick MW, Eggers H, Boothe RG . Natural strabismus in monkeys: convergence errors assessed by cover test and photographic methods. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1992; 33: 2986–3004.
Quick MW, Newbern JD, Boothe RG . Natural strabismus in monkeys: accommodative errors assessed by photorefraction and their relationship to convergence errors. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1994; 35: 4069–79.
Hering E . The theory of binocular vision. In: Bridgeman B, Stark L, editors. The theory of binocular vision. New York: Plenum Press, 1977.
Judge SJ . How is binocularity maintained during convergence and divergence? Eye 1996; 10: 172–6.
Gamlin PDR, Yoon K, Zhang H . The role of cerebroponto-cerebellar pathways in the control of vergence eye movements. Eye 1996; 10: 167–71.
Lang J . Strabismus. Thorofare, NJ: Slack, 1984.
Noorden GK, von . Binocular vision and ocular motility: theory and management of strabismus. St Louis: CV Mosby, 1985.
Boothe RG . Amblyopia. In: Albert DM, Jakobiec FA, editors. Principles and practice of ophthalmology: basic sciences. Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1993.
Quick M, Tigges M, Gammon J, Boothe RG . Early abnormal visual experience induces strabismus in infant monkeys. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1989; 30: 1012–7.
Crawford MLJ, Harwerth RS, Chino YM, Smith EL III. Binocularity in prism-reared monkeys. Eye 1996; 10: 161–6.
Harwerth RS, Smith EL, Duncan GC, et al. Effects of enucleation of the fixating eye on strabismic amblyopia in monkeys. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1986; 27: 246–54.
Harwerth RS, Smith EL, Crawford MLJ, et al. Effects of enucleation of the nondeprived eye on stimulus deprivation amblyopia in monkeys. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1984; 25: 10–8.
O'Dell CD, Quick MW, Boothe RG . The development of stereoacuity in infant rhesus monkeys. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci (ARVO Suppl) 1991; 32: 1044.
Jampolsky A, Brown RJ, Boothe RG, Wilson JR, Tigges M, Norcia AM, Fernandes A . Delay of stereoacuity development in monkeys by full time alternate occlusion. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci (ARVO Suppl) 1993; 34: 1188.
Brown RJ, Norcia AM, Hamer RD, Wilson JR, Boothe RG . Development of motion processing mechanisms in monkey and human infants. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci (ARVO Suppl) 1993; 34: 1356.
Norcia AM . Abnormal motion processing and binocularity. Eye 1996; 10: 259–65.
Boothe RG, Gong W . Development of binocular alignment in normal and visually deprived monkeys. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci (ARVO Suppl) 1992; 33: 871.
Tychsen L . Motion sensitivity and the origins of infantile strabismus. In: Simons K, editor. Infant vision: basic and clinical research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Quick MW . Experimentally induced monkey models of infantile strabismus. Doctoral Dissertation, Emory University Graduate School, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1992.
Brown RJ . Deprivation of binocular vision and consequences on motion perception. Master's Thesis, Emory University Graduate School, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1995.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boothe, R., Brown, R. What happens to binocularity in primate strabismus?. Eye 10, 199–208 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.1996.47
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.1996.47