How virtual reality may help people with a vision disorder

UC Science Today

Virtual reality may help people with a visual condition called amblyopia, in which there is reduced vision in one eye. Neuroscientist Adrian Chopin of the University of California, Berkeley, says they’re treating patients with this visual defect by having them play 3D computer games that, he says, could restore their eyesight. “Virtual reality is really developing tremendously right now. We are trying to develop a new game. That is something in between a video game industry and treatment.” Chopin hopes this new 3D computer game treatment will overwrite the old dogma that adult patients’ amblyopia cannot be cured. “Now we have all these optometrists and ophthalmologists out there telling the patients very often that there is nothing that can be done for them because they are too old and they needed to be treated when they were children. And we realize it is not true. I mean, it is difficult to change it, but it is not that it is impossible." Chopin says the virtual reality study is already showing signs of success with some patients’ eyesight significantly improving.