Strabismic amblyopia disrupts the hemispheric asymmetry for spatial stimuli in cortical visual processing

Hemispheric asymmetry in processing visual stimuli was assessed in anisometropic and strabismic amblyopia and control subjects. Measurements of contrast sensitivity for low and high spatial frequencies were performed psychophysically and tested under functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a stimulus configuration that generates measurements for each temporal and nasal hemifield. The fMRI and the psychophysics results showed a marked hemispheric asymmetry in processing spatial frequencies for normal and anisometropic adults, in which low spatial frequencies were mainly processed in the left visual field – right hemisphere (LVF-RH: 0.3 cycles per degree [cpd]; F = 12.548; p = .002) and the high spatial frequencies were predominating processed in the right visual field – left hemisphere (RVF-LH: 2.0 cpd; F = 4.582; p = .021 and 8.3 cpd; F = 8.561; p = .001). No asymmetry was present in the amblyopic and the fellow eye of the strabismic amblyopia subjects. We conclude that the developmental organi...