London, Jan 3
There is a good news for patients who have lost part of their vision due to glaucoma, optic nerve damage or stroke.
Scientists have now discovered that success of vision restoration training (VRT) depends mostly on activity of residual vision that is still left after the injury.
"Our findings confirm the special role of residual structures in vision restoration, which is mediated by surviving cells in partially damaged brain tissue," said Bernhard A. Sabel of the Institute of Medical Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg, in Germany.
Both local neuronal activity and activity in the immediate surrounding influence the development of visual recovery “hot spots”.
"Hot spots" were defined by the researchers as those locations that were initially impaired at baseline but then recovered after VRT training, while "cold spots" remained impaired where vision training did not help.
By:IANS