Light Therapy Helps Stroke Survivors Recover Lost Vision

The NovaVision VRT is specifically developed for patients who suffer from a visual field deficit resulting from a neurological trauma caused by either stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Patients perform vision rehabilitation seated in front of a VRT medical device, ideally in a relatively dark room free of distractions. Throughout the vision rehabilitation sessions, the patient focuses on a central point displayed on the device screen and responds whenever a stimulus is seen, mostly presented along the border of the blind area. Repeated exposure to the visual stimuli over time activates neurons in the brain that work to improve your vision through a process called neuroplasticity.

The therapy lasts for six months, with patients performing twice-daily sessions six days per week, where they focus and respond to light stimuli. During each session, the light stimuli are presented in the area most likely to recover visual function, an area believed to change as therapy progresses and vision is improved. On average, an improvement of 5% in central field of vision is observed. The NovaVision VRT is a product of NovaVision (Boca Raton, FL, USA), and has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"Vision Restoration Therapy (VRT) is a noninvasive approach to 'rewire' the visual nerves, aiming the healthy neurons to perform the function of those damaged or destroyed by a stroke, resulting in a wider visual field," said Tom Bridges, NovaVision vice president of sales and marketing.

Neuroplasticity (also known as cortical remapping) refers to the ability of the brain to change as a result of one's experience, that the brain is "plastic" and "malleable." The discovery of this feature of the brain is rather modern; the previous belief amongst scientists was that the brain does not change after the critical period of infancy. The brain consists of interconnected neurons and glial cells, and learning may happen through change in the strength of the connections, by adding or removing connections, and by the formation of new cells. "Plasticity" relates to learning by adding or removing connections, or adding cells.

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