ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办：中国科学院心理研究所
出版：科学出版社

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2016, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (Suppl.): 4-4.

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Perceptual training significantly improves visual functions in children with amblyopia

Ge Chen; Lejin Wang; Fang Hou; Zhong-Lin Lu; Chang-Bing Huang   

  1. Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology1, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 LinCui Rd, ChaoyangDist, Beijing 100101, China.
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Rd, ShijingshanDist, Beijing 100049, China.
    Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Peking University, 11 Xizhimen South Street, Xicheng Dist, Beijing 100044, China.
    Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, 225 Psychology Building, 1835 Neil Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
  • Online:2016-12-31 Published:2016-12-31

Abstract:

Purpose: Although numerous studies have shown that perceptual learning can improve deficient visual functions in adults with amblyopia, the efficacy of perceptual learning in treating children with amblyopia has rarely been investigated. Here, we designed a child-friendly, individualized adaptive vision training (iAVT) based on a visual training procedure originally developed to train adults with amblyopia (Zhou et al., 2006) to evaluate e?ects of perceptual learning in children with amblyopia.
Methods: Nineteen amblyopic children (7.78±2.73 yrs) were trained with the iAVT in a filtered letter E orientation identification task near their individual cutoff frequency for 8 sessions, with 300 trials or 30 minutes per session. Contrast sensitivity function (CSF) and visual acuity in both the amblyopic and fellow eyes, and stereo acuity were assessed before and after training. CSF was measured using the qCSF procedure (Lesmes, Lu, Baek, & Albright, 2010). Each qCSF assessment took less than ?ve minutes.
Results: Training signi?cantly improved visual acuity (2 lines) and contrast sensitivity (53.9%, from 13.01 to 20.02, p< 0.0001) in the amblyopic eye, stereo acuity (80.8%, from 606 to 116.2, p< 0.0001), and contrast sensitivity (24.7%, from 28.4 to 35.4, p< 0.01) in the fellow eye. The magnitudes of improvements were correlated with pre-training visual deficits: The worse the pre-training measure was, the greater the improvements. Interestingly, we found no significant correlation among the magnitudes of improvements in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereo acuity (all p > 0.39).
Conclusions: These results demonstrate the merit of perceptual learning in treating children with amblyopia. Consistent with results in adults with amblyopia (Xi, Jia, Feng, Lu, & Huang, 2014), the lack of correlation among improvements in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereo acuity suggests that structured monocular and binocular treatments are necessary to fully restore de?cient visual functions in amblyopia.

Key words: perceptual learning, visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, stereo-acuity, children amblyopia