Treating lazy eye with 'Tetris'

Adults suffering from lazy eye (amblyopia) may benefit from playing a variation of the video game Tetris. Previously, only children under the age of 7 were shown to benefit from amblyopia treatment. Researchers at the McGill University Health Centre used head-mounted video goggles with the 18 adult test subjects who suffered from ambyopia. Results were published in the journal, Current Biology. Nine of the adults in the study played the game with their stronger eye patched. The remaining half played the game with each eye given the ability to see a separate part of the game. This forced the eyes to work together and these patients saw a marked improvement in the vision of their weaker eye after only two weeks of treatment. Researchers say that the success of this type of therapy is due to the plasticity of the brain. This plasticity means that it is possible to treat vision loss that happened during early visual development. In essence, the brain is able to "relearn" how to make both eyes work together.*