Anisometropia Induces Amblyopia without Shrinkage of Ocular Dominance Columns in Human Visual Cortex

In amblyopia the eye supplies a normal input to the central nervous system, but vision is impaired. Studies in animal models have shown that early unilateral lid suture causes severe shrinkage of the eye's ocular dominance columns in striate cortex. This contraction of the geniculocortical projection, by reducing connections from the deprived eye, has been thought in part to explain amblyopia. We have established criteria for using cytochrome oxidase (CO) histochemistry to label the ocular dominance columns in amblyopic primates and have used this method to reveal the ocular dominance columns in an amblyopic human subject for the first time.