The ability to revert neural cells back to their younger, plastic state could potentially be a treatment breakthrough. But fully restoring the brain’s original spongelike quality would nonetheless give clinicians pause. Turning the brain into malleable mush at the age of 30 would not be the best solution—some scientists think that an excess of plasticity, in fact, may
lie at the root of conditions such as schizophrenia.
Some investigators are already exploring how far they can bring back plasticity and mend patients through environmental cues alone. In his own work, Levi found that after thousands of sessions in video game–like exercises—“kilo trials” as he calls these mini clinical trials—adult amblyopia patients achieved substantial improvements in visual acuity. Levi is already doing research with actual video games. Grand Theft Auto IV or Medal of Honor may retrain the brain in ways its developers never imagined.
Perils of a Badly Wired Brain
The research showing that neural systems can be forced back to an earlier, more pliable state may extend beyond treatments for “lazy eye.” Schizophrenia may emerge from faulty signals transmitted during the critical developmental period, causing an excess of plasticity throughout life. Autistic children may suffer a surfeit of overexcited connections, another offshoot of errors in wiring that occur during this early-childhood window. Biochemicals similar to those in the visual system may be activated by auditory, olfactory and tactile signals. Adjusting their levels up or down in the central nervous system could conceivably treat a variety of disorders.
Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Childhood Recovered".
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7 Comments
Add CommentGood work. It seems that if we contron some key factors, we can reverse the development of the brain. Cool.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood. It must be a good feeling if we can reverse the development of our brain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have always suffred from lack of stereo vision and wore a
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thispatch during childhood. It is false to say that we have no 3D vision : Focussing by the lenses of the eyes create depth clues for the brain. But the image from our 'good' eye overlaps the other and deletes its overlap.
In a science park I tried 3D goggles of several different technologies. The one which sends an image to each eye alternately created the first stereo vision I have ever experienced. Oh for a permanent treatment!
Optometrists have known for decades that amblyopia can be treated at any age. Optometric vision therapy, the correct refractive prescription, patching, and atropine therapy all have a role to play. Research has shown that lazy eye is a brain problem that involves both eyes....so its treatment should involved both eyes as well. Go to http://www.covd.org and http://www.mainosmemos.blogspot.com (type in "amblyopia" in the search box) for more information
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDominick M. Maino, OD, MEd, FAAO, FCOVD-A
Professor of Pediatrics/Binocular Vision Illinois College of Optometry
Interesting article - as an eye patch wearer as a child I thought that the video-games suggested as exercises could only help, just to find out that the two games mentioned are violent ones -- other ideas????
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting article - as an eye patch wearer as a child I thought that the video-games suggested as exercises could only help, just to find out that the two games mentioned are violent ones -- other ideas????
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHa, this article is 3 years old but I just found it a few minutes ago.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy space/depth perception has been predominantly monocular. I've had a touch of amblyopia from bad hyperopic anisometropia. I presume in the weaker eye the refractively corrected image from eyeglasses never focused sufficiently on the retina in the foveal region that would stimulate stereopsis. How do I know?
This past year I bought a pair of prism glasses from a stereo 3d store which enabled me to "see" the 3rd image in 2 dimensional stereograms. I was also able to use the adjuster on an Stereo Realist viewer (like a ViewMaster) to see the 3rd image in a fixed stereo pair photo. I could never see these things before. But somehow I have always been able to see 3d from colored eyeglasses and linearly polarized eyeglasses at the movies and comic books. So maybe my mis-focus hasn't been "too far" off.
Another interesting remedy for "deeper" space/depth perception has, for me, been obliquely linear polarized glasses. I use them like sunglasses. These create a "polarization disparity" which, I believe, somehow relieves the suppression instinct. Trees, leaves, branches, objects suddenly seemed out there in 3d space. Light and shade is a monocular cue supposedly, but for me the world now seems less flat in front of my eyes. The glasses also caused more dreaming at night, which I suppose is a sign of increased synaptic activity, probably improving the neural pathways. Before these glasses, I sometimes felt my brain groping for stimulation from the weaker eye so much that I even tried a flashing bike light at night under the blankets. It never worked.
I am skeptical about drug claims, like Prozac. I'm more of a natural remedy person when possible, believing that brain development has to be predominantly intelligence/perceptual based instead of predominantly chemical based.
I have yet to experiment with circular polarized stimuli.