Sensory ocular dominance based on resolution acuity, contrast sensitivity and alignment sensitivity

Abstract

Background: Ocular dominance is the superiority or preference of one eye over the other in terms of sighting, sensory function (for example, visual acuity) or persistence in binocular rivalry. There is poor agreement between sighting and sensory dominance and findings are equivocal on the possible neural basis of ocular dominance and its significance. Thus, there are questions on the meaning and importance of ocular dominance. Despite the lack of clarity in this area, ocular dominance is used clinically, for example, as the basis for decisions on monovision in contact lens wear and on treatment of anomalies of binocular vision. Methods: Sighting dominance and three types of sensory dominance (based on resolution acuity, contrast sensitivity and alignment sensitivity) were compared within individuals, with the main aim of determining whether sensory dominance is consistent across spatial visual functions. Results: Our findings indicate that each type of sensory dominance is insignificant in most individuals and in agreement with previous work that sensory and sighting dominance do not generally agree. Conclusion:These results demonstrate not only that different types of ocular dominance are not in agreement but also that in the normal visual system sensory dominance as measured here is insignificant in most individuals with normal vision.

A population study of binocular function

“…927 We found no significant differences in unmasked or binocularly 928 masked contrast thresholds between the sighting dominant and 929 the non-dominant eyes. This may seem surprising, but is consis-930 tent with previous findings that there is no correlation between 931 sighting dominance and ''sensory'' dominance, defined by best 932 visual performance, for example best acuity, or best contrast 933 sensitivity (Mapp, Ono, & Barbeito, 2003;Porac & Coren, 1975; 934 Suttle et al, 2009). We did find that for binocular rivalry, the 935 stimulus presented to the dominant eye is perceived for a signifi-936 cantly greater proportion of the time than the stimulus presented 937 to the non-dominant eye.…”

Quantifying Sensory Eye Dominance in the Normal Visual System: A New Technique and Insights into Variation across Traditional Tests

“…What is known is that measures of motor and sensory dominance do not correlate strongly within individuals. 10,12,14,16,17 This lack of correlation is in contrast to other types of lateralized dominance, such as hand dominance, 18 and raises the question of what the relevance of eye dominance might be. Since it appears that eye dominance is not determined by a more faithful input from one eye 9,10 or more efficient cortical processing of one eye's input, 19,20 there remains the possibility that its basis lies in the nature of the interaction that occurs between the eyes when both eyes are operating together (i.e., when both eyes are contributing to a fused, stable percept) as is the case in everyday viewing.…”

“…First, observers with normal binocular vision exhibit imbalances in dichoptic interactions in performing a variety of tasks, 24,26 suggesting a possible inhibitory basis for eye dominance. Second, eye dominance bears no relationship to the relative monocular contrast sensitivity, acuity, or hyperacuity of each eye, 12 suggesting that monocular excitatory signals are not solely responsible.…”

Early Symptomatic Presbyopes—What Correction Modality Works Best?

“…This is the method reported to be the most widely used, 14,15 though there are many types of ocular dominance and the actual significance of dominance has been questioned. 16 Indeed strong ocular dominance has been suggested to be correlated with poor success with monovision. 17 There were a number of statistically significant differences identified.…”