一個研究團隊發(fā)現(xiàn),童年時期的視覺異常會影響負責注意力等功能的高級腦部區(qū)域的發(fā)展。
The researchers from the University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, and the University of Auckland uncovered differences in how the brain processes visual information in patients with various types of lazy eye. In doing so, they are the first to demonstrate that the brain can divert attention away from a lazy eye when both eyes are open.
滑鐵盧大學、英屬哥倫比亞大學和奧克蘭大學的研究員們揭露了不同種類弱視患者在大腦處理視覺信息方面的不同。在研究過程中,他們首先證明了,在雙眼睜開時,大腦會轉(zhuǎn)移較弱的一只眼睛的注意力。
"Current treatments for lazy eye primarily target the early stages of visual processing within the brain," said Ben Thompson, a professor in Waterloo's School of Optometry and Vision Science."The results from this study show us that new treatments should also target higher-level processes such as attention."
“目前治療弱視的方法主要是針對大腦內(nèi)部的視覺處理階段,這項研究的結果顯示,新的治療方法還應該針對如注意力之類的高級處理。”驗光和視覺專家Ben Thompson教授談到。
Lazy eye, known as amblyopia, is a loss of vision that originates in the brain, typically when a child develops an eye turn (strabismic type) or a substantial difference in refractive error between the eyes (anisometropic type). The unequal input causes the brain to ignore information from the weaker eye during brain development. Conventionally, eyecare practitioners treated the different types of lazy eye similarly, primarily because the visual impairments experienced appeared to be the same.
弱視是一種源于腦部的視力下降,通常是在兒童時期出現(xiàn)的眼球轉(zhuǎn)向(斜視類型)或屈光不正(屈光參差類型)。不規(guī)則的視覺輸入導致了大腦在發(fā)展過程中會忽視弱視眼睛所采集的信息。照慣例,眼科醫(yī)生對不同類型的弱視的治療方法相似,主要是因為視覺障礙形成的過程看上去一樣。
In this study lead researcher, Amy Chow, and her colleagues asked patients to pay attention to a specific set of dots among a group of distracting dots, all moving on a computer screen. However, the tracked dots were only visible in one eye (the weaker eye) while the distracting dots were visible only to the other eye (the stronger eye).
在研究過程中,電腦屏幕上顯示很多來回移動點,首席研究員Amy Chow和她的同事讓患者將注意力集中在其中一組特定的點上,然而,需要注意的點只在視力較弱的一只眼睛中可見,而其它的點則在視力較強的一只眼中可見。
For people with normal vision as well as those with anisometropic amblyopia, showing different images between the two eyes didn't matter. Both groups were able to overcome the distracting interference and track the dots successfully. Patients with strabismic amblyopia, on the other hand, were unable to direct their attention to the target dots when they were visible to only the weaker eye.
對于視力正常的人和患有屈光參差性弱視的人,在使用雙眼時看不同的圖像并沒有問題,兩組人都能夠克服干擾,成功的關注特定的點。而當弱視患者只用較弱的眼睛觀看時,他們則不能將注意力集中在特定的點上。
"One of the underlying reasons why some people with lazy eye have poor vision comes down to how the brain suppresses an eye," said Chow, a Ph.D. student at the School of Optometry and Vision Science at Waterloo. "The poorer-seeing eye is open, the retina is healthy and sending information through to the brain, yet that information does not reach conscious awareness as the brain chooses not to use it."
“患上弱視的一個根本原因歸結于大腦抑制眼睛的方式,當視力較差的那只眼睜開時,視網(wǎng)膜是健康的并且會向大腦傳送信息,但是這部分信息并沒有形成意識知覺,因此大腦并不會采納。”Chow博士說到。
About thirty-five thousand Canadians—one per cent of the population—have strabismic amblyopia. The condition can be corrected in childhood, but treatment efficacy can be highly variable. These findings are a stepping stone in developing better treatments of lazy eye.
加拿大大概有1%的人口(約35,000人)為弱視患者,這種問題能夠在童年時期進行矯正,但是治療的效果有很大差異,這些發(fā)現(xiàn)是更好的治療弱視的基石。
Their paper, Dichoptic Attentive Motion Tracking is Biased Toward the Nonamblyopic Eye in Strabismic Amblyopia, appears this month in a special issue of the journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
相關論文(Dichoptic Attentive Motion Tracking is Biased Toward the Nonamblyopic Eye in Strabismic Amblyopia)發(fā)表在《眼科學和視覺科學研究》雜志的特刊上。