Creating new treatments for amblyopia
The visual system can be “rebooted,” offering hope for restoring sight to the visually impaired, according to research at MIT. Amblyopia, also called “lazy eye,” is the most common form of visual disability in children. Human vision is poor at birth, but improves steadily during infancy and childhood as connections between eye and brain mature. But this maturation can go awry when inputs from the two eyes are out of balance; as a result of a cataract in one eye, for example, or a misalignment of the two eyes. When this happens, the connections from one eye fail to form correctly, and vision through that eye is impaired. Even if surgery is carried out to correct the underlying cause, the changes to the brain’s visual system persist. To correct the disorder, ophthalmologists typically apply a patch or a drug called atropine to the stronger eye, forcing the child to use their weaker eye. However, the...