Retinal Influences on Sclera Underlie Visual Deprivation Myopia

Visual deprivation of chicks rapidly induces an increased growth of the vitreous chamber which results in axial myopia, even after a day or so. This experimental myopia provides an opportunity to trace the causal path from altered visual experience to altered eye growth. With respect to the visual factors involved, the gross activity of the retinal neurons seems an important variable. The eyes of animals raised wearing translucent occluders do not become myopic or elongated if stroboscopic illumination is present. Conversely, the eyes do become myopic and elongated if deprived of all form vision, if reared in a featureless environment or if deprived in only part of the visual field. The deprivation must, however, be continuous if myopia is to result; even as little as two hours of normal vision per day almost completely eliminates the effect of 12 hours of deprivation. The control of eye growth by vision seems to take place in local regions of the eye. Deprivation of various parts of the visual field produces myopia and elongation in only the deprived part, even in animals in which the optic nerve has been cut. It seems that at the level of the sclera ocular elongation (and thus myopia) results from local growth, because we find increases in synthesis of DNA and protein as well as more new cells. The protein synthesis increase is also local, in the sense that the posterior sclera grows much more than other parts, explaining why deprivation causes ocular elongation and myopia, rather than simply larger eyes. These results suggest that some factor in part of the retina can influence the growth of the subjacent sclera.