Action Video Games as a Treatment of Amblyopia in Children: A Pilot Study of a novel, child-friendly action game

Mechanisms of recovery of visual function in adult amblyopia through a tailored action video game

“…Playing a highly engaging, action-packed dichoptic first-person shooter video game, customized to incorporate a perceptual learning task and perceptually equated stimuli to the two eyes, results in reduced suppression, increased Gabor resolution, improved visual acuity and, in some cases, improved stereopsis in adults with long-standing amblyopia. The improvements we found here in both visual acuity and stereopsis are consistent with those reported in many previous studies of both monocular 1 2 3 and dichoptic 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 perceptual learning as well as in video game play in amblyopia. However, our relatively large cohort of adults with amblyopia, allowed us, for the first time, to assess the link between visual function recovery and suppression.…”

“…Moreover, monocular training has been reported to result in reduced suppression 43 and improved stereopsis 2 43 44 45 46 47 as well, mostly but not exclusively in anisometropic amblyopes. On the otherhand, dichoptic training may be more effective in promoting binocular vision and stereopsis 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 (reviewed in Ref. 48 ); however it will require a randomized clinical trial in a large population of amblyopes, considering separately anisometropic and strabismic patients, to determine the most effective method for treating adults with amblyopia.…”

“…A good deal of evidence, both physiological and behavioral, suggests that changing the balance of neural excitation and inhibition by reducing inhibition and boosting excitation may be crucial in recovery of visual functions 49 . All approaches to retraining the AE, whether monocular video game play 2 3 , perceptual learning 1 , the “push-pull” method 30 , or dichoptic training 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 seek to achieve this altered balance by increasing signal, reducing noise, or modulating attention in the AE. That some forms of reduced suppression ensue as a by-product of such training is clearly established, yet we show here that reduced suppression is unlikely to be at the root of visual recovery.…”

“…However, a number of studies now suggest that adults with long-standing amblyopia may at least partially recover visual acuity and stereopsis following monocular perceptual training 1 or video game play with their amblyopic eye 2 3 . Moreover, a number of recent studies in children 22 23 24 and adults 25 26 27 28 29 30 point to a reduction of suppression through dichoptic training as the key to successful treatment. Still, both the link between suppression and amblyopia 31 32 and the safety and efficacy of dichoptic treatment 33 are controversial.…”

Children can optimally integrate multisensory information after a short action‐like mini game training

“…In particular, these studies show behavioural improvements in several cognitive domains, mostly involving visuo‐spatial attention, but also memory, and executive control (Bediou et al, ). These skills appear to improve in children too following action video games play, as shown in studies conducted in typically (Dye & Bavelier, ), as well as atypically developing populations (Franceschini et al, ; Gambacorta et al, ). In particular, the study of Franceschini et al () has shown that exposing children with dyslexia for only 12 hr to action‐like mini games can dramatically improve their reading skills, suggesting a possible transfer of learning across very different skills that are mediated by attention.…”