Video game can help cure ‘lazy eye’ in adults

Toronto: Researchers have found that a popular puzzle video game could help improve vision in adult amblyopia, commonly known as 'lazy eye'. 

    A research team led by Dr Robert Hess from McGill University and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Canada examined the potential of treating amblyopic adults using the video game Tetris, which involves connecting different shaped blocks as they fall to the ground. 
    They found that by distributing information between the two eyes in a complementary fashion, the video game trains both eyes to work together, which is counter to previous treatments for the disorder. 
    This provides direct evidence that alleviating suppression of the weaker eye, by forcing both eyes to cooperate, increases the level of plasticity in the brain and allows the amblyopic brain to relearn, researchers said. 
    Amblyopia is caused by poor processing in the brain, which results in suppression of the weaker eye by the stronger eye. Previous treatments for the disorder, which have focused largely on covering the stronger eye in order to force the weaker eye to work, have proven only partially successful in children and have been ineffective in adults. 
    "The key to improving vision for adults, who currently have no other treatment options, was to set up conditions that would enable the two eyes to cooperate for the first time in a given task," said Hess, senior author of the paper. PTI

NOT JUST A PLAY TOOL