Pre-stereoptic binocular vision in infants

In a preferential looking experiment, identical patterns (vertical stripes) were presented to both eyes on one of two screens while orthogonal patterns (vertical stripes in one eye and horizontal stripes in the other) were presented on the other screen. Most infants younger than 3.5 months of age originally showed a preference for the dichoptic (interocularly orthogonal) pattern. At an average age of 3.5 months, however, they showed a sudden shift of preference from this pattern to the interocularly identical pattern. The full shift from a preference for one stimulus to the other (both statistically significant) occurred within a few weeks in most cases. The onset age of the shift in preference agreed with the onset age of fusion-rivalry discrimination found in a previous study (Birch et al., 1985). The original preference for the bincularly orthogonal patterns may be interpreted as a preference for a grid (interocularly emergent intersections) over a grating, judging from results of two control experiments. These data suggest that the pre-stereoptic system non-selectively combines information from the two eyes without regard to edge orientation because it loses eye-of-origin information at a relatively early stage of binocular visual processing. Thus, the pre-stereoptic system does not have the capability of interocular suppression. The theoretical and clinical significance of the new findings are discussed along with a neuronal model of cortical development of ocular segregation and binocular pathways.

[1]  R Held,et al.  The Development of Vergence Does Not Account for the Onset of Stereopsis , 1983, Perception.

[2]  S. Levay,et al.  Ocular dominance columns and their development in layer IV of the cat's visual cortex: A quantitative study , 1978, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[3]  I Mohindra,et al.  A non-cycloplegic refraction technique for infants and young children. , 1977, Journal of the American Optometric Association.

[4]  D. Teller,et al.  Scotopic vision, color vision, and stereopsis in infants. , 1982, Current eye research.

[5]  P. Schiller,et al.  Quantitative studies of single-cell properties in monkey striate cortex. II. Orientation specificity and ocular dominance. , 1976, Journal of neurophysiology.

[6]  G. Poggio,et al.  Binocular interaction and depth sensitivity in striate and prestriate cortex of behaving rhesus monkey. , 1977, Journal of neurophysiology.

[7]  R. Aslin.  Development of binocular fixation in human infants. , 1977, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[8]  J. Mehler,et al.  Neonate Cognition: Beyond the Blooming Buzzing Confusion , 1985 .

[9]  J. Atkinson,et al.  Stereoscopic Discrimination in Infants , 1976 .

[10]  G. Poggio,et al.  Mechanisms of static and dynamic stereopsis in foveal cortex of the rhesus monkey , 1981, The Journal of physiology.

[11]  R. Held,et al.  Stereoacuity development for crossed and uncrossed disparities in human infants , 1982, Vision Research.

[12]  D. Hubel,et al.  The development of ocular dominance columns in normal and visually deprived monkeys , 1980, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[13]  R. Held,et al.  Preferential-looking assessment of fusion and stereopsis in infants aged 1-6 months. , 1985, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.

[14]  J. Atkinson,et al.  Some recent findings on the development of human binocularity: A review , 1983, Behavioural Brain Research.

[15]  S. Dumais,et al.  Stereopsis in human infants. , 1980, Science.

[16]  R N Aslin,et al.  Binocular vision in infants: a review and a theoretical framework. , 1980, Advances in child development and behavior.

[17]  E. Birch,et al.  Infant interocular acuity differences and binocular vision , 1985, Vision Research.

[18]  J. Pettigrew,et al.  The effect of visual experience on the development of stimulus specificity by kitten cortical neurones , 1974, The Journal of physiology.

[19]  J. Atkinson.  Development of optokinetic nystagmus in the human infant and monkey infant , 1979 .

[20]  J M Wolfe,et al.  Influence of Spatial Frequency, Luminance, and Duration on Binocular Rivalry and Abnormal Fusion of Briefly Presented Dichoptic Stimuli , 1983, Perception.

[21]  B Timney.  Development of binocular depth perception in kittens. , 1981, Investigative ophthalmology & visual science.

[22]  G. Baumgartner,et al.  Development of stereopsis and cortical binocularity in human infants: electrophysiological evidence. , 1981, Science.

[23]  V. Dobson.  Clinical applications of preferential looking measures of visual acuity , 1983, Behavioural Brain Research.

[24]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex , 1962, The Journal of physiology.

[25]  H. P. Bechtoldt,et al.  Stereopsis in young infants and stereopsis in an infant with congenital esotropia. , 1979, Journal of pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus.

[26]  R. Held,et al.  Stereoacuity of human infants. , 1980, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[27]  D. Hubel,et al.  Plasticity of ocular dominance columns in monkey striate cortex. , 1977, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[28]  R Held,et al.  Orientational anisotropy in infant vision , 1975, Science.