Scientists have created video games that add an important element of fun to the repetitive training needed to improve vision in people – including adults – with a lazy eye and poor depth perception.
The training tools, including a Pac-Man-style “cat and mouse” game and a “search for oddball” game, have produced results in pilot testing: Weak-eye vision improved to 20/20 and 20/50 in two adult research participants with lazy eyes whose vision was 20/25 and 20/63, respectively, before the training began.
Unlike the common use of eye patches on dominant eyes to make lazy eyes stronger, this type of testing uses a “push-pull” method by making both eyes work during the training. Patching is push-only training because the dominant eye remains completely unused.
With push-pull, both eyes are stimulated but with the weaker eye exposed to more complex images that create a stronger stimulus. In this way, both eyes are encouraged to interact as they should, but the dominant eye’s power in the relationship is suppressed. This technique targets important pathways in the brain that must be active to produce balanced vision.