Treatment of amblyopia emerging from plasticity of the visual cortex and binocular vision

Amblyopia is a developmental visual disorder, which is accompanied by physiological changes in the visual cortex.Many studies that focused on the treatments of amblyopia and improvment of therapeutic effects in teenagers and adults have been paid more and more attention.Recent studies reveal that a threshold level of neurotransmitters, such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), norepinephrine (NE), acetylcholine, 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and dopamine, is required to open the critical period.Meanwhile, the content of specific extracellular matrix, such as extracellular protease tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and cross-linked chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans (CSPGs), exhibits dynamic changes over the time course of the critical period, which plays a key role in synaptic modifications.Clinical studies show that suppression and deficits in visual attention towards signal from the amblyopia eye may be important factors in physiological mechanism of amblyopia, which support a basis for non-invasive brain stimulation and perceptual learning as new effective treatments.This paper described the recent advances in plasticity of visual cortex and binocular vision in the field of amplyopia treatment, especially in teenagers and adults.