Orthoptics and Ocular Motility: The Next Fifty Years

Abstract

The next fifty years of orthoptics and ocular motility are likely to be exciting ones directed toward new discoveries in the etiology, heredity and treatment of strabismus. It is predicted that emphasis will be upon organizing single cell visual processing into systems and subsystems and to relate strabismic entities and their sequellae to specific behavioral deficits. It is also expected that research will be devoted to finding ways in which the plastic period of vision development can be prolonged or reversed. There will be a need for an academically based visual specialist who has a broad understanding of the mechanisms of vision and the clinical skills to apply this knowledge to patients. The orthoptist of the future is the ideal person to fill this role.

• magnocellular pathway
• parvocellular pathway
• visual plasticity
• orthoptic therapy