Progressive increase in the CFF of the non-occluded eye during one week of monocular deprivation.

Conducted 3 experiments with a total of 80 male college students. The CFF of the occluded and nonoccluded eye was determined before and after 1 wk. of monocular deprivation (darkness). No significant changes occurred in the occluded eye, but there was a significant increase in the CFF of the nonoccluded eye regardless of whether the dominant or nondominant eye was visually deprived. When the CFF of the nonoccluded eye was measured at intervals of 0, 1/3, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 days of monocular deprivation, a negatively accelerating improvement in performance was found as a function of duration. This interocular effect still appeared to be noticeably present 1 wk. after removal of the occluding eye patch. Findings are related to W. Cannon and A. Rosenblueth's denervation supersensitivity phenomenon and S. Sharpless's concept of "disuse of neural pathways." (French summary) (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)