Vision is the act of seeing.   The eye contains over fifty percent of the receptors in the body.  Therefore, vision is an extremely important to our daily lives. The eye has many neurons that are involved in the development and use of the eye (Tortora). The proper development of these neurons is key to proper functioning of the eyes, especially in children.

Scientists at UC Irvine and UCLA have come up with a new approach to correcting visual disorders in children. The two visual disorders that they looked at in children were early cataract development, and amblyopia. Amblyopia is a condition known as lazy eye (University).

The problem was that even after children would have surgery to correct these visual impairments,their  vision was not corrected. They found that vision was not corrected because of improper brain development due to problems with vision during childhood. Assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology at UC Irvine, Xiangmin Xu and Josh Trachtenberg, associate proffer of neurobiology at UCLA, found that vision not returning after surgery is caused by a specific type of inhibitory neurons that control the “critical period” in development of early vision. This “critical period” is usually before age 7 (University).

They discovered that the cause of the vision defects in these children were due to improper functioning of inhibitory nerons. They did tests on mice in which they used an experimental drug compound that would treat the neuronal defects that were causing vision loss. Their work suggests that the drugs would target the neurons and help correct the vision disorders, in these children (University).

This research is important for children and families who have a child or even children who suffer from these vision disorders. This is hopeful information for these parents, which could prevent vision loss in children or help the children who are affected by these visual impairments. The hope is that more advancements will be made in this field so that even more vision disabilities can be corrected.

Tortora G.J. and B. Derrickson. 2012. Principles of Anatomy and Physiology. 13th ed., John Wiley and Sons

University of California – Irvine. “New approach to remedying childhood visual disorders.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 August 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130826123145.htm>.