Dataset Information

Plasticity and stability of the visual system in human achiasma.

ABSTRACT: The absence of the optic chiasm is an extraordinary and extreme abnormality in the nervous system. The abnormality produces highly atypical functional responses in the cortex, including overlapping hemifield representations and bilateral population receptive fields in both striate and extrastriate visual cortex. Even in the presence of these large functional abnormalities, the effect on visual perception and daily life is not easily detected. Here, we demonstrate that in two achiasmic humans the gross topography of the geniculostriate and occipital callosal connections remains largely unaltered. We conclude that visual function is preserved by reorganization of intracortical connections instead of large-scale reorganizations of the visual cortex. Thus, developmental mechanisms of local wiring within cortical maps compensate for the improper gross wiring to preserve function in human achiasma.

SUBMITTER: Hoffmann MB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427398 | biostudies-other | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Publications

Plasticity and stability of the visual system in human achiasma.

Hoffmann Michael B MB Kaule Falko R FR Levin Netta N Masuda Yoichiro Y Kumar Anil A Gottlob Irene I Horiguchi Hiroshi H Dougherty Robert F RF Stadler Joerg J Wolynski Barbara B Speck Oliver O Kanowski Martin M Liao Yaping J YJ Wandell Brian A BA Dumoulin Serge O SO

Neuron 20120801 3

The absence of the optic chiasm is an extraordinary and extreme abnormality in the nervous system. The abnormality produces highly atypical functional responses in the cortex, including overlapping hemifield representations and bilateral population receptive fields in both striate and extrastriate visual cortex. Even in the presence of these large functional abnormalities, the effect on visual perception and daily life is not easily detected. Here, we demonstrate that in two achiasmic humans the ...[more]

PMID: 22884323

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Project description:Abnormal visual experience during a sensitive period of development disrupts neuronal circuitry in the visual cortex and results in abnormal spatial vision or amblyopia. Here we examined whether playing video games can induce plasticity in the visual system of adults with amblyopia. Specifically 20 adults with amblyopia (age 15-61 y; visual acuity: 20/25-20/480, with no manifest ocular disease or nystagmus) were recruited and allocated into three intervention groups: action videogame group (n?=?10), non-action videogame group (n?=?3), and crossover control group (n?=?7). Our experiments show that playing video games (both action and non-action games) for a short period of time (40-80 h, 2 h/d) using the amblyopic eye results in a substantial improvement in a wide range of fundamental visual functions, from low-level to high-level, including visual acuity (33%), positional acuity (16%), spatial attention (37%), and stereopsis (54%). Using a cross-over experimental design (first 20 h: occlusion therapy, and the next 40 h: videogame therapy), we can conclude that the improvement cannot be explained simply by eye patching alone. We quantified the limits and the time course of visual plasticity induced by video-game experience. The recovery in visual acuity that we observed is at least 5-fold faster than would be expected from occlusion therapy in childhood amblyopia. We used positional noise and modelling to reveal the neural mechanisms underlying the visual improvements in terms of decreased spatial distortion (7%) and increased processing efficiency (33%). Our study had several limitations: small sample size, lack of randomization, and differences in numbers between groups. A large-scale randomized clinical study is needed to confirm the therapeutic value of video-game treatment in clinical situations. Nonetheless, taken as a pilot study, this work suggests that video-game play may provide important principles for treating amblyopia, and perhaps other cortical dysfunctions.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01223716.

Dataset Information

Plasticity and stability of the visual system in human achiasma.

Publications

Plasticity and stability of the visual system in human achiasma.

Similar Datasets

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