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中山大學(xué)眼科中心、 新西蘭奧克蘭大學(xué)、香港理工大學(xué)、加拿大麥吉爾大學(xué)等多家單位的聯(lián)合研究人員使用流行的益智游戲“俄羅斯方塊”治療成人弱視，這項(xiàng)研究提供了直接證據(jù)：迫使雙眼合作，可減輕對(duì)于弱視眼的抑制，增強(qiáng)大腦的可塑性，并且讓大腦重新學(xué)習(xí)。研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在“Current Biology”雜志。
弱視是兒童視力障礙最常見的原因，影響了約3%的人群。大腦處理信息不佳，導(dǎo)致優(yōu)勢(shì)眼抑制弱視眼。以往的治療主要靠遮蓋優(yōu)勢(shì)眼，強(qiáng)迫弱視眼進(jìn)行工作，但這種方法僅在兒童中有效，成人往往效果不佳。
“改善成人視力的關(guān)鍵在于為雙眼提供合作的條件。”麥吉爾大學(xué)眼科研究所主任Robert Hess說(shuō)。“成人的大腦具有相當(dāng)程度的可塑性，這使得童年時(shí)視覺(jué)發(fā)育中斷造成的后果有了治療的可能。迫使眼睛共同努力，我們相信，將會(huì)改善弱視。”
研究人員使用視頻游戲俄羅斯方塊鍛煉受試者，納入18名弱視成人患者。9名患者使用弱視眼進(jìn)行游戲，優(yōu)勢(shì)眼被遮蓋;另外9名患者則雙眼共同參與，但一只眼只能看到方塊落下，另一只眼只能看到靜止的背景平面。
兩周后，后者弱視眼的視力和立體視覺(jué)明顯改善。單眼組改為雙眼訓(xùn)練后，視力也得到顯著提高。
北美的一項(xiàng)臨床試驗(yàn)將在今年晚些時(shí)候?qū)@種療法進(jìn)行評(píng)估，以評(píng)價(jià)其對(duì)于兒童的適用性。
編譯自：McGill University Health Centre (2013, April 22). Lazy eye disorder treated with video game Tetris. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 23, 2013,
Dichoptic training enables the adult amblyopic brain to learn
Summary
Adults with amblyopia, a common visual cortex disorder caused primarily by binocular disruption during an early critical period, do not respond to conventional therapy involving occlusion of one eye . But it is now clear that the adult human visual cortex has a significant degree of plasticity , suggesting that something must be actively preventing the adult brain from learning to see through the amblyopic eye. One possibility is an inhibitory signal from the contralateral eye that suppresses cortical inputs from the amblyopic eye . Such a gating mechanism could explain the apparent lack of plasticity within the adult amblyopic visual cortex. Here we provide direct evidence that alleviating suppression of the amblyopic eye through dichoptic stimulus presentation induces greater levels of plasticity than forced use of the amblyopic eye alone. This indicates that suppression is a key gating mechanism that prevents the amblyopic brain from learning to see.
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