convergence
Convergence is a vergence movement that increases the angle between the visual axes, ordinarily through simultaneous adduction of both eyes. The same term covers the convergent position the eyes reach and the innervation needed to hold that position.1
As an object approaches, the angle between the visual axes must grow to keep the object's images on both foveae.1 Both medial rectus muscles contract to produce the movement.2 Convergence, accommodation and pupillary constriction together make up the near vision complex. The three are linked by synkinesis, an association of functions elicited by a near object, and each can still be dissociated from the others.1
The near point of convergence should normally be less than 8 cm from the eyes. The examiner notes where one eye stops converging and where the patient reports that the target doubles.3
More detail
Patients whose near point of convergence lies between 8 and 20 cm may have convergence difficulties. If the examiner sees one eye stop converging and the patient reports no doubling, the patient is suppressing, and suppression may be the first sign of a problem.3
Sources (8)
- von Noorden and Campos, Binocular Vision and Ocular Motility, ch. 5
- von Noorden and Campos, Binocular Vision and Ocular Motility, ch. 4
- Pickwell's Binocular Vision Anomalies, ch. 8
- Caloroso, E.E. and Rouse, M.W. (1993) Clinical management of strabismus. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
- Noorden, G.K. von and Campos, E.C. (2002) Binocular Vision and Ocular Motility: Theory and Management of Strabismus. 6th edn. St. Louis: Mosby.
- Rowe, F.J. (2012) Clinical Orthoptics. 3rd edn. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Scheiman, M. and Wick, B. (2020) Clinical management of binocular vision: heterophoric, accommodative, and eye movement disorders. 5th edn. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.
- Wright, K.W. and Strube, Y.N.J. (2012) Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reviewed October 2026