The Functional Consequences of Amblyopia - Essay Example

The prevalence of amblyopia in humans has been documented to be varying from 1 to 5%, making it a significant cause of sight morbidity around the world. Although the condition was identified in the eighteenth century, the lack of research in this area caused the same form of treatment to continue up till some time recently. This is also a reason why many clinicians have the same age-old concepts of the condition, and therefore make errors by formulating the same treatment strategy, that is in no way the ideal one for the patient. (Merck, 2003)

The process of sight and vision is carried out to understand and identify the three-dimensional structures that we are surrounded with. On this basis, we are able to identify the composition of the world around us, based on the two-dimensional image formed on the retina, formed by combining two visual inputs into one vision. Any abnormality in the formation of the visual system can lead to many developmental abnormalities, including the condition known as amblyopia. (John, 1998)

The patient suffering from amblyopia usually has a blurry eye, which is not due to any physical abnormality of the eye, but rather due to the surrounding abnormalities of the other structures around the eye. The images formed by the eye which are blurry, are ignored by the brain, either due to a defect in the transmission of the image or due to some defect in the brain working itself. This results in the brain completely ignoring the image that it receives. Amblyopia develops in the early ages of life as the brain is developing its visual capabilities at that particular time. Any abnormality or problem in the visual areas in the brain at this stage leads to amblyopia. As the brain develops itself in this manner at a very young age; many of the patients fail to realize they have a problem until they undergo any eye testing procedure. (Wickepedia, 2007)

Many of the features found in amblyopic patients are a result of adaptation mechanisms carried out by the brain. It may accept these mechanisms or completely reject or ignore them. For example, amblyopic patients use foveal vision instead of peripheral vision used in normal eyes, indicating the development of large spatial summation. This is the reason for the loss of contrast sensitivity most commonly seen and retention of low spatial frequencies. Such patients also display features of spatial uncertainty, vernier acuity, and altered psychovisual performances under many conditions. (John, 1998)