Interocular inhibition in strabismus

Summary Many patients with acquired strabismus do not suffer from diplopia and confusion after an individually and age-dependent interval. They inhibit the image of the deviated eye by binocular rilvary and particularly by the physiological ability to disregard visually disturbing stimuli. In strabismus with early onset, binocular rivalry is also demonstrable, even for stimuli that do not normally lead to suppression. On the basis of anomalous retinal correspondence, this rivalry occurs between retinal points onto which the same object projects. The retinal area with the lesser eccentricity receives the dominance. The fovea of the deviated eye is therefore not suppressed. In small-angle strabismus with smaller functional differences between anomalous corresponding retinal points anomalous fusion and even stereopsis can be possible as long as strong suprathreshold stimuli are presented. Strabismic amblyopia as a consequence of interfoveal suppression can only develop before anomalous retinal correspondence dominates in the strabismic child.