Central and peripheral retinal photoreceptor orientation in amblyopic eyes as assessed by the psychophysical Stiles-Crawford function.

Retinal photoreceptor orientational tendencies were assessed within both eyes of samples of control and selected functional amblyopic observers, with the psychophysical Stiles-Crawford (S-C) function used as an indicator. S-C function determinations were made at testing locations spanning 30 degrees of the horizontal meridian of the visual field and including the forced region. Normal-appearing S-C functions with peak locations which clustered within a subregion of the pupil were found for all but one of the eyes tested. The single exception was a non-amblyopic eye of one of the amblyopic observers. Thus, within this sample of amblyopic eyes, visual acuity deficits are apparently not related to retinal photoreceptor alignment anomalies.