Monocular Acuity in the Presence and Absence of Fusion

Abstract

Because little is known about monocular acuity during binocular fusion, acuity of the right eye was measured in binocularly normal subjects, with the fellow eye open or fully occluded. The target was flashed for 65 ms or presented sinusoidally for 1 s. Subjects had both eyes optimally focused, or the right eye defocused by +3.00 D. Monocular acuities were equivalent during fusion or occlusion when both eyes were optimally focused. Acuity of the defocused eye was reduced when the fellow eye was open compared to when it was occluded. Suppression of the blur, therefore, produced a measurable reduction in recognition thresholds. As monocular acuity was not measurably affected by the fellow eye when each eye was in focus, the finding that monocular vision is improved with the fellow eye occluded should be ascribed to something other than suppression or more sensitive spatial measures of the suppression should be obtained.