Adults with amblyopia can achieve substantial improvements in visual acuity by playing video games for 40 hours, suggest the results of a pilot study published onlineAugust 30 in PLoS Biology.
"This study is the first to show that video game play is useful for improving blurred vision in adults with amblyopia," said study lead author Roger Li, OD, PhD, research optometrist at the School of Optometry and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at University of California–Berkeley, in a university news release. "I was very surprised by this finding; I didn't expect to see this type of improvement."
No studies have shown similar benefits for individuals with normal vision.
Amblyopia, also known as "lazy eye," is a brain disorder that causes reduced vision in 1 eye. It affects 2% to 3% of American children and represents the most frequent cause of permanent 1-eye visual impairment among young and middle-age adults. Although pediatric options include occlusion therapy and use of atropine drops to blur vision in the stronger eye, no treatments are currently available for adults.
Amblyopia means that visual stimulation either fails to transmit or is poorly transmitted through the optic nerve to the brain for a continuous period of time. It can also occur when the brain "turns off" the visual processing of one eye, to prevent double-vision, for example in strabismus (crossed-eyes). It often occurs during early childhood, resulting in poor or blurry vision. Amblyopia normally affects only one eye in most patients, but it is possible (but rare) to be amblyopic in both eyes, if both fail to receive clear visual images. Detecting the condition in early childhood increases the chance of successful treatment, especially if detected before the age of five. The earlier it is detected, and the underlying cause corrected with spectacles and/or surgery, the more successful the treatment in equalizing vision between the two eyes.
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| A child wearing an adhesive eyepatch to correct amblyopia |
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