Vision restoration therapy restores sight to stroke patients

Vision restoration therapy can help restore vision that has been partially lost as a result of stroke, according to a report published online, ahead of print, in Neurorehabilitation & Neural Repair.

Researchers at Columbia University hypothesised that restoration therapy, which involves repetitive stimulation of the zones adjacent to the blind area, can modestly enlarge the field of vision in patients who lost the ability to see in one eye. According to the researchers, this home-based therapy induces specific changes in the brain?s response to stimuli in the trained border-zone location.

Based on the results of their research so far, the authors suggest that visual restoration therapy appears to alter brain activity. They went on to conclude that demonstrating a visual field's specific training effect on brain activity may provide an important starting point for understanding the potential for visual therapy in partially blind stroke patients.