The working group for Reorganization of Embodied processing through Wholistic Integration and Rehabilitation after Early Deprivation.
Goals of the study group:
- Hidden Binocularity. Moving beyond standard clinical tests of stereovision forms the first goal of our study group. We want to develop tasks that tap into the multiple levels of binocular vision with the hopes of finding mechanisms on which to build rehabilitation strategies
- Working beyond the critical period. The traditional treatment of amblyopia comes in the form of patching the fellow eye to enhance acuity of the impacted eye. Once a patient shows near equal acuilty in the two eyes or they age out of the critical period, treatment is stopped. We feel new treatments are needed to extend the critical period and impact perception beyond this limited timeframe.
- Visuomotor control as a goal and rehabilitation strategy. Ultimately, patients need better control over their visually guided actions. By precisely measuring these interactions, we can model how best to improve them. Our initial project examined the relation between hidden binocularity and visuomotor control. Those tests are ongoing.
- Multisensory rehabilitation. Beyond the critical period, changes will require strong manipulations; manipulations that can come from the integrated stimulation of multiple sensory and motor systems. Ultimately, we hope to restore binocular function to amblyopic patients who face a lifetime of challenges in everyday living.