Infant Vision

Infant Vision

Unlike many other sensory systems, the visual system – components from the eye to neural circuits – develops largely after birth, especially in the first few years of life. At birth, visual structures are fully present yet immature in their potentials. From the first moment of life, there are a few innate components of an infant's visual system. Newborns can detect changes in brightness, distinguish between stationary and kinetic objects, as well as follow kinetic objects in their visual fields. However, many of these areas are very poorly developed. With physical improvements such as increased distances between the cornea and retina, increased pupil dimensions, and strengthened cones and rods, an infant's visual ability improves drastically. The neuro- pathway and physical changes that underlie these improvements in vision remains a strong focus in research. Due to an infant's inability to verbally express their visual field, growing research in this field relays heavy on non-verbal cues including an infants perceived ability to detect patterns and visual changes. The major components of the visual system can be broken up into visual acuity, depth perception, color sensitivity, and light sensitivity.

By providing a better understanding of the visual system, future medical treatments for infant and pediatric ophthalmology can be established. By additionally creating a timeline on visual perception development in "normal" newborns and infants, research can shed some light on abnormalities that often arise and interfere with ideal sensory growth and change.