It also helps adults

Vision as a sensory function is provided not only by the eyes, but also by the visual tract, which transmits impulses from the eye to the central nervous system, and the occipital lobes of the cerebral cortex, where the processing and analysis of the data obtained and the formation of a visual image takes place. Until now, scientists believed that the brain must receive these signals from birth in order to learn to "see" what the retina perceives.

Leber congenital amaurosis (VAL) is a group of hereditary retinal diseases characterized by severe visual impairment from birth. VAL occurs as a result of mutations in any of more than two dozen genes that cause degeneration or dysfunction of retinal photoreceptors.

It has already been proven that the introduction of synthetic retinoids – chemical compounds that affect the retina – can significantly restore vision in children with VAL. A group of researchers from the University of California at Irvine found that treatment can also make a difference for adults suffering from this disease.

Working with mouse models of VAL, the researchers were surprised that the central link of the visual system and visual pathways were significantly restored in adults.

Immediately after treatment, signals coming from the opposite eye, which is the dominant pathway in the mouse, activated twice as many neurons in the brain. Even more surprising was that the signals coming from the eye located on the same side activated five times more neurons in the brain after treatment, and this effect was long-lasting. The restoration of visual functions at the brain level was much more pronounced than expected due to the improvements that the researchers observed at the retinal level. Such high efficiency of treatment in the central link of the visual analyzer in adulthood confirms a new concept, which is that there is a hidden potential of vision that can be "awakened".

Article C.Huh et al. Retinoid therapy restores eye-specific cortical responses in adult mice with retinal degeneration published in the journal Current Biology.

Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the University of California: Eye-opening discovery about adult brain's ability to recover vision.