McCollough aftereffects in strabismus and amblyopia

Abstract

In strabismic people, the functioning of the deviating eye is impaired. This impairment is binocular in origin since it depends on stimulation of the straight eye; sensitivity and acuity of the deviating eye are usually better when the straight eye is patched than when both eyes are viewing. We investigated interactions between the eyes in strabismic people by using the McCollough color aftereffect as an exploratory procedure. Both normal and strabismic people adapted to black and colored bars and then examined black and white test bars. They reported colors in the achromatic test bars that were complementary to the adapting colors; this is the McCollough aftereffect. Both a monocular McCollough effect and a binocular McCollough effect were induced in people having normal vision. Strabismic people did not show a binocular McCollough effect. Aftereffect strengths were the same in each eye of normal people but were stronger in the impaired eye of strabismic people. A speculation is offered as to why the “non-seeing” eye of strabismic people “sees” the aftereffect better.