Amblyopia and the plasticity in visual system

Amblyopia is an ophthalmic diseases, usually derives from functional imbalance between two eyes during early development. Its treatment depends on the plasticity of the visual system. Once beyond the critical period, like older children with amblyopia and adult amblyopia, the treatment effect of traditional methods is powerless. Perceptual learning refers to a selectively improved performance of perceptual tasks after perceptual training, which physiological mechanism is the plasticity of the neural system. Recently, visual perceptual learning has been shown to significantly improve visual functions of human and animals. Additionally, perceptual learning could also improve impaired visual functions of amblyopia and other patients with visual dysfunction. Animal electrophysiological studies showed that perceptual learning resulted in an improvement of neuronal tuning properties. All these findings suggested that neural plasticity maintained in some degree even beyond the critical period of visual development. Key words: Amblyopia; Visual system; Plasticity; Perceptual learning