Amblyopia.

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The definition of amblyopia is decreased vision without apparent organic defects or, in other words, purely functional disturbance of the visual acuity. The Dutch layman speaks of the lazy eye (lui oog), and in olden times the expression of visual obtusion (stompzichtigheid) was used. Although this was a more or less exact translation of the Greek word amblyopia, this could no longer be used because of the emotional connotation. The concept of amblyopia has changed in the course of time. Buffon in 1743 considered weakness of the eye as the primary cause of strabismus. Later on the concept of amblyopia ex anopsia was introduced. In 1788 the term amblyopia was used for very low visual acuity, next to amaurosis. This was of course more the indication of a sign and not a diagnosis. Bangerter in 1953 proposed the definition “decrease of visual acuity without organic defect”. In 1960 Von Noor-den and Burian added the reversibility by adequate therapy as a feature of amblyopia (41). The term functional amblyopia is a pleonasm (14) but we still have to use the adjective “functional”, because in the ophthalmological literature (especially French literature) amblyopia is still used in general sense to indicate low visual acuity.KeywordsVisual AcuitySpatial FrequencyReceptive FieldContrast SensitivityLateral Geniculate BodyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.