Monday, March 17, 2014

Could Tetris spell the end of the eye patch? Scientists use computer game to treat lazy eye

  • Tetris may be used to train both eyes to operate together
  • Presently individuals with lazy eye put on eye patch to pressure the less strong eye to operate nevertheless its not efficient in grown ups
  • Tetris technique led to 'dramatic' improvement

By Emma Innes

Released: 08:02 GMT, 25 April 2013

Tetris could spell the end of the eye patch for people with lazy eye

Tetris could spell the finish from the eye patch for those who have lazy eye

The video game Tetris could spell the finish from the eye patch for those who have lazy eye.

Scientists have discovered a means of using the overall game to deal with adult amblyopia by training both eyes to operate together.

The breakthrough provides direct evidence that forcing both eyes to co-operate increases the amount of plasticity within the brain and enables the amblyopic brain to relearn.

Amblyopia is easily the most standard reason for visual impairment in early childhood, affecting as much as three in 100 people.

It happens once the vision in a single eye doesn't develop correctly.

What this means is the individual can easily see less clearly in the underdeveloped eye meaning they depend heavily on their own other eye.

If without treatment, it can result in permanent lack of vision within the affected eye.

Previous remedies for that disorder, that have focused largely on since the more powerful eye to be able to pressure the less strong eye to operate, have demonstrated only partly effective in youngsters and also have been ineffective in grown ups.

Study leader Physician Robert Hess, Director from the Research Department of Ophthalmology at McGill College in Montreal, Canada, stated: ‘The answer to enhancing vision for grown ups, who presently don't have any other treatments, was to setup problems that would let the two eyes to cooperate the very first time inside a given task. More...

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The scientists examined the potential for dealing with amblyopic grown ups using Tetris, that involves hooking up different formed blocks because they fall down.

Dr Hess stated: ‘Using mind-mounted video goggles we could display the overall game dichoptically, where one eye was permitted to determine just the falling objects, and also the other eye was permitted to determine just the ground plane objects.

‘Forcing your eyes to operate together, we thought, would improve vision within the lazy eye.’

The scientists examined an example of 18 grown ups with amblyopia.

Amblyopia is the most common cause of visual impairment in childhood, affecting up to three in 100 people

Amblyopia is easily the most standard reason for visual impairment in early childhood, affecting as much as three in 100 people

Nine participants performed the overall game using the less strong eye, as the more powerful eye was patched.

Another nine performed exactly the same game dichoptically, where each eye was permitted to see another a part of the overall game.

After two days, the audience playing the dichoptic game demonstrated a ‘dramatic’ improvement within the vision from the less strong eye too as with three dimensional depth perception.

Once the patching-putting on group, who'd proven merely a moderate improvement, was switched towards the new dichoptic training, the vision of the group also enhanced significantly.

The viability from the treatment in youngsters is going to be evaluated later this season inside a medical trial.

The study was released within the journal Current Biology.


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