Scientists from the University of Michigan have found that sleep following binocular visual stimulation helps treat common vision problems in children. The results are published in the journal Nature. Communication Biology.
Amblyopia, sometimes called “lazy eye,” is a common form of visual impairment in children and infants associated with distorted visual signals entering the brain. Visual impairment cannot be corrected with glasses or lenses. A bandage is often used to treat the strong eye. As a result, the brain is “retrained” and vision in the weak eye improves. The effect is based on the plasticity of the brain – its ability to change structure and function. With age, the plasticity of the brain decreases, so after 12-13 years it is often impossible to cure amblyopia.
In a new study, scientists have shown that a treatment that requires the two eyes to work together can help people with amblyopia recover faster. The study’s authors used mice with amblyopia. They showed the mice enriched visual stimuli. Some mice were allowed to keep both eyes open at the same time, some had one eye covered with a bandage. The animals were then allowed to sleep.
The researchers found that binocular visual stimulation — seeing both eyes simultaneously — led to greater changes in the brain and greater improvement in vision. Scientists have also proven the importance of sleep for this therapy. Visual recovery was impaired in rats whose sleep was interrupted in the first few hours after visual stimulation.
The results show that standard treatment may be less effective than newly developed methods.