Games used to treat ‘lazy eye’

Researchers in Glasgow, Scotland have found a fun way to treat amblyopia in children.

By wearing special goggles while playing a tetris-like game for an hour a day, patients saw noticeable results in ‘ten days or less’, according to the BBC.

Amblyopia, or ‘lazy eye’, affects three percent of children under six, and if not treated, can cause severe vision problems later in life.

The condition does not effect the eye itself, but is caused when for some reason the brain simply does not respond well to signals from one eye.

In the past, this has been treated by placing a patch over the good eye, forcing the brain to use the image from the ‘lazy’ eye. Now, with the goggles, children can drop the eye patch, and get results while playing games.

The goggles work by displaying the image to the weak eye in clear focus, while the strong eye gets a weak, fuzzy picture. This, like the eye patch, forces the brain to adapt.

The difference?

Games are more fun than an eye-patch.