Surgery to restore eyesight cannot entirely undo the brain rewiring caused by long term blindness, reveals a new study.
Recent scientific advances have meant that eyesight can be partially restored to those who previously would have been blind for life.
Blind People have Better Memory Skills than Those with Sight
Congenitally blind people have better memories than those with sight, find psychologists from University of Bath.
Advertisement
However, scientists at the University of Montreal and the University of Trento have discovered that the rewiring of the senses that occurs in the brains of the long-term blind means that visual restoration may never be complete.
Scientists know that in cases of untreatable blindness, the occipital cortex that is the posterior part of the brain that is normally devoted to vision becomes responsive to sound and touch in order to compensate for the loss of vision.
![Top Ten Facts On Blindness]( "Top Ten Facts On Blindness")
Visual handicap has been a blind spot for governments globally for very long. Especially in India, blindness prevalence has increased dramatically, mostly due to avoidable causes for which simplified treatments are also available these days. Here are the top ten facts on blindness in India and around the world.
Giulia Dormal said that on one hand, the findings revealed that the visual cortex maintains a certain degree of plasticity that is the capacity to change as a function of experience, in an adult person with low vision since early life.
On the other, they discovered that several months after the surgery, the visual cortex had not regained full normal functioning, he further added.
The study suggested that eye surgery can lead to a positive outcome even when performed in adulthood after a life-time of profound blindness. There is however an important caveat.
Giulia Dormal said that the recovery observed in the visual cortex, which was highlighted by a decrease in auditory-driven responses and by an increase in both visually-driven responses and grey matter density with time, was not total.
Indeed, auditory-driven responses were still evidenced in certain regions of the visual cortex even 7 months after surgery, and these responses overlapped with visually-driven responses. This overlap may be the reason some aspects of vision, despite having improved with time, still remained below normal range 7 months after surgery, Dormal further added.
Source: ANI
Top Ten Facts On Blindness
Visual handicap has been a blind spot for governments globally for very long. Especially in India, blindness prevalence has increased dramatically, mostly due to avoidable causes for which simplified treatments are also available these days. Here are the top ten facts on blindness in India and around the world.
Advertisement
Giulia Dormal said that on one hand, the findings revealed that the visual cortex maintains a certain degree of plasticity that is the capacity to change as a function of experience, in an adult person with low vision since early life.
On the other, they discovered that several months after the surgery, the visual cortex had not regained full normal functioning, he further added.
The study suggested that eye surgery can lead to a positive outcome even when performed in adulthood after a life-time of profound blindness. There is however an important caveat.
Giulia Dormal said that the recovery observed in the visual cortex, which was highlighted by a decrease in auditory-driven responses and by an increase in both visually-driven responses and grey matter density with time, was not total.
Indeed, auditory-driven responses were still evidenced in certain regions of the visual cortex even 7 months after surgery, and these responses overlapped with visually-driven responses. This overlap may be the reason some aspects of vision, despite having improved with time, still remained below normal range 7 months after surgery, Dormal further added.
Source: ANI
Diabetic Retinopathy
The term 'diabetic retinopathy' refers to changes in the retina which often occur in people with diabetes.
Advertisement
 Laser Eye Surgery - AnimationInteractive section of Medindia gives general information about Laser Eye Surgery | Advertisement
|
Advertisement
Recommended Reading
Latest Research News
Studies using brain scans shows that how our brain helps us experience and remember our daily surroundings.
Scientists explore a potential mechanism that a jawless fish called the lampreys employs to swim again after spinal cord injuries.
New study finds that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) preteens exhibit more social media and mobile phone addiction than straight peers.
The model for memory consolidation claims that the hippocampus forms new memories and, as time goes on, trains the cortex to store enduring memories.
A new study explored the link between T immune cells in ill patients and mortality risk.