Amblyopia is a disorder of visual acuity in one eye, thought to arise from 
suppression by the other eye during development of the visual cortex. In the 
attentional blink, the second of two targets (T2) in a Rapid Serial Visual 
Presentation (RSVP) stream is difficult to detect and identify when it appears 
shortly but not immediately after the first target (T1). We investigated the 
attentional blink seen through amblyopic eyes and found that it was less finely 
tuned in time than when the 12 amblyopic observers viewed the stimuli with their 
preferred eyes. T2 performance was slightly better through amblyopic eyes two 
frames after T1 but worse one frame after T1. Previously (A. V. Popple & D. M. 
Levi, 2007), we showed that when the targets were red letters in a stream of 
gray letters (or vice versa), normal observers frequently confused T2 with the 
letters before and after it (neighbor errors). Observers viewing through their 
amblyopic eyes made significantly fewer neighbor errors and more T2 responses 
consisting of letters that were never presented. In normal observers, T1 (on the 
rare occasions when it was reported incorrectly) was often confused with the 
letter immediately after it. Viewing through their amblyopic eyes, observers 
with amblyopia made more responses to the letter immediately before T1. These 
results suggest that childhood suppression of the input from amblyopic eyes 
disrupts attentive processing. We hypothesize reduced connectivity between 
monocularly tuned lower visual areas, subcortical structures that drive foveal 
attention, and more frontal regions of the brain responsible for letter 
recognition and working memory. Perhaps when viewing through their amblyopic 
eyes, the observers were still processing the letter identity of a prior 
distractor when the color flash associated with the target was detected. After 
T1, unfocused temporal attention may have bound together erroneously the 
features of succeeding letters, resulting in the appearance of letters that were 
not actually presented. These findings highlight the role of early (monocular) 
visual processes in modulating the attentional blink, as well as the role of 
attention in amblyopic visual deficits.