Advances on interocular suppression in amblyopia

As visual science developed, imbalance interocular suppression was considered as the key mechanism in patients with amblyopia, and suppression played a key role in both monocular and binocular deficits that characterized amblyopia.Suppression in amblyopia involved complicated anatomical sites, including visual pathway below V1, V1 and higher central systems.At present, quantitative assessment and reduction of suppression have become a new approach of amblyopia treatment.Therefore, we need to understand characteristics of binocular interaction of normal subject and amblyopia in detail, and to understand the similarities and differences between the mechanism of suppression of amblyopia and binocular rivalry suppression in normal observers.In recent years, the quantitative assessment of amblyopia suppression is mainly based on dichoptic psychophysical paradigm.Because different mechanisms are involved, so there is a standardization problem in clinical application.The new treatment of amblyopia focused on reducing suppression and restoring binocular function.This review aimed to provide an overview of recent studies that have investigated the key role of suppression in pathogenesis of amblyopia, and the relevant visual mechanism, anatomic locations, measurements and treatment of suppression in amblyopia. Key words: Suppression; Amblyopia; Psychophysics; Perceptual learning; Binocular interaction