Amblyopia is a developmental disorder of vision associated with higher-order visual attention deficits. We explored whether amblyopia affects the orienting of covert spatial attention by measuring the magnitude of the gaze cueing effect from emotional faces. Gaze and emotion cues are key components of social attention. Participants with normal vision (n = 30), anisometropic (n = 7) or strabismic/mixed (n = 5) amblyopia performed a cued peripheral target detection task under monocular and binocular viewing conditions. The cue consisted of a centrally presented face with left or right gaze (50% validity to target location) and a fearful, happy, or neutral expression. The magnitude of spatial cueing was computed as the reaction time difference between congruent and incongruent trials for each expression. Fearful facial expressions oriented spatial attention significantly more than happy or neutral expressions. The magnitude of the gaze cueing effect in our cohort of mild-to-moderate amblyopia was comparable to that in normal vision and was not correlated with the severity of amblyopia. There were no statistical group or amblyopia subtype differences for reaction time in any viewing condition. These results place constraints on the range of attentional mechanisms affected by amblyopia and possibly suggest normal covert processing of emotional face stimuli in mild and moderate amblyopia.

中文翻译：

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通过中性和情感凝视线索来定向隐蔽注意力似乎不受轻度至中度弱视的影响。


弱视是一种与高阶视觉注意力缺陷相关的视力发育障碍。我们通过测量情绪面孔的凝视提示效应的大小来探讨弱视是否影响隐性空间注意力的定向。目光和情绪线索是社会注意力的关键组成部分。视力正常 (n = 30)、屈光参差 (n = 7) 或斜视/混合 (n = 5) 弱视的参与者在单眼和双眼观看条件下执行提示的周边目标检测任务。提示包括一张居中的脸部，向左或向右凝视（对目标位置的有效性为 50%）以及恐惧、快乐或中性的表情。空间提示的大小计算为每个表达的一致和不一致试验之间的反应时间差异。恐惧的面部表情比快乐或中性的表情更能引导空间注意力。在我们的轻度至中度弱视队列中，凝视提示效应的程度与正常视力相当，并且与弱视的严重程度无关。在任何观看条件下，反应时间均不存在统计学组别或弱视亚型差异。这些结果限制了受弱视影响的注意机制的范围，并可能表明轻度和中度弱视患者对情绪面部刺激的正常隐蔽处理。