Abstract
Loss of visual acuity caused by abnormal visual experience during development (amblyopia) is an untreatable pathology in adults. In some occasions, amblyopic patients loose vision in their better eye owing to accidents or illnesses. While this condition is relevant both for its clinical importance and because it represents a case in which binocular interactions in the visual cortex are suppressed, it has scarcely been studied in animal models. We investigated whether exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) is effective in triggering recovery of vision in adult amblyopic rats rendered monocular by optic nerve dissection in their normal eye. By employing both electrophysiological and behavioral assessments, we found a full recovery of visual acuity in enriched rats compared to controls reared in standard conditions. Moreover, we report that EE modulates the expression of GAD67 and BDNF. The non invasive nature of EE renders this paradigm promising for amblyopia therapy in adult monocular people.
Highlights
Amblyopia is a pathological reduction in visual perceptual abilities due to a defective sensory experience during development
Experiments conducted over thirty years ago on monocularly deprived cats showed that the effects of monocular deprivation (MD) on cat striate cortex cells can be partially reversed after the critical period by enucleation of the experienced eye [19]
At the end of the differential rearing period, visual acuity (VA) of the amblyopic eye was assessed using in vivo electrophysiological recordings of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) from the visual cortex contralateral to the long-term deprived eye
Summary
Amblyopia ( called lazy eye) is a pathological reduction in visual perceptual abilities due to a defective sensory experience during development. This condition, which has a prevalence of about 3% of the total world population [1], derives from a functional imbalance between the two eyes, typically caused by unilateral congenital cataract, anisometropia or strabismus, resulting in an ocular dominance shift toward the normal eye in the primary visual cortex and a prominent loss of visual acuity (VA) in the affected eye [2,3]. Whether VA recovery is possible under these conditions was never investigated
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
