Visual Acuity and Spatial Contrast Sensitivity: Normal Development and Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract

This chapter considers the role of experience and of competitive interactions between the eyes in the development of spatial vision. We first describe the postnatal development of grating acuity and spatial contrast sensitivity in normal infants and the neural changes underlying that development. We then evaluate the role of visual input in driving postnatal development by drawing on evidence from children deprived of patterned visual experience by dense and central cataracts. Animal models allow us to deduce the impact of visual input on different levels of the nervous system. We conclude that experience and competitive interactions between the eyes for cortical connections play a prominent role in the development of spatial vision.