Treating Lazy Eye: Gaming 25x More Efficient Than Eye Patch
...is a title I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd one day type. But it is apparently so.
The traditional treatment for "lazy eye syndrome" is to slap an eye patch on the non-lazy eye until the wonky one strengthens up. But as pummeled amblyopic kids everywhere know, the eye patch can take months to work, if it works.
Now Dr. Uri Polat, Tel Aviv University's eye and brain specialist, has developed computer gaming therapy that can achieve the same amount of correction in 20 hours as an eye patch will in 500.
Can you imagine being a kid and facing 500 hours of eye patch time? Breaks my heart. Now imagine that same kid being given the alternate remedy of a solid day of video gaming instead?
Of course, you can't just give the kids Banjo-Kazooie and hope their eyes straighten out - Dr. Polat's created special software that trains the eye - but still, that's a hell of a lot better than a year in an eye patch.
"You see these poor kids in kindergarten wearing the patch. Everyone hates it, especially the parents who know what it's doing to their kid's self-esteem," says Dr. Polat. "My aim is to not only treat adults, but to treat kids using a computer two or three times a week, one hour each time, without the need for them having to wear a patch."
What's better - Dr. Polat's treatment works on adults, whereas the eye patch method isn't recommended for folks over the age of nine. It's also more effective. And while the treatment is only being tested on adults at the moment, hopefully one day the only kid at school wearing an eye patch will be Red Ryder BB gun-wielding Ralphie, who totally deserved it.
Treating Lazy Eyes With A Joystick [ScienceDaily via VE3D]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 23 June 2009
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: amblyopia, eye patch, gaming therapy, lazy eye
I suffered through eye-patch therapy twice. I would totally have gone for the videogame option if only they could've invented it 20 years ago.
but Banjo-Kazooie therapy is all the rage in New Zealand
never heard of eye-patch therapy, sounds pretty horrific
I did eyepatching as well. I don't think it was that bad. Apparently I started telling old ladies that a bird had pecked out my eye.
I too was patched. Even wore glasses with only 1 active lens, so 1 eye looked HUGE, eventually switched to 1 contact lens, but haven't used them in over 20 years. Never got it totally fixed, but if they are doing this on adults...SIGN ME UP!
I read about this last year I think. What they basically do is split a video image in two. Like a car racing on the left eye, and the road on the other. And your eyes are forced to work together to make a whole picture.
I've noticed I have better eye function after seeing a 3D movie like UP or Coraline...basically the same principal, though not as extreme.
If this is the method they are using in Israel and New York...they don't really say. I would love to get in on this study and fix my stupid eye!
And it seems to be effective for adults too? Sounds fantastic.
I went through the eye-patch thing myself, but - as a kid, not fully understanding the importance of it, and tired of bumping into things, I know I 'cheated' enough with the patch to prevent its help - if the eyepatch would have helped at all, anyway.
I'd certainly be interested in a videogame approach if it can help. I'll have to pass this information on to my optimitrist. :)