A Behavioral Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury-Associated Visual Dysfunction Based on Adult Cortical Plasticity
Abstract
We have a highly efficient and practical treatment technique to improve vision. We apply this proven-effective completely non-invasiveness training method with minimal equipment needs and no risks to evoke plasticity in the damaged visual cortex of patients with TBI. Despite numerous technical difficulties, we show remarkable achievements. We have first completed training of 2 control groups. After refining, the protocol was applied for training the TBI patients. The patients show robust improvements in various basic visual functions, including acuity, contrast sensitivity, and in the scotomata area tested using standard clinical visual field mapping. In one patient, the disability level, according to the National Social Security, was decreased from 60% to 30% following our treatment, indicating an enhancement in the independence of the patients in the daily life -- an effect of critical social importance. These gains were accompanied by unexpected improvements in near vision, as well as in general processing speed, overall attention, cognitive processing, and involuntary eye movement suppression during fixation. These effects also supported improvement in higher level visual functions, such as reading and even driving. The patients also report substantial subjective improvement in the everyday life tasks, supported by the reports of their family members. To our best knowledge, no remedy is still available for visual deficits associated with TBI. Moreover, when presented at the World Congress On Brain Injury in March 2014, our method attracted much interest from experts in the field.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA622238
Entities
People
- Anna Sterkin
- Uri Polat
Organizations
- Tel Aviv University