Saturday, April 11, 2009

Eye 'compensates for blind spot'

Partially sighted and registered blind people can be taught to read and see faces again using the undamaged parts of their eyes, say experts. When only the central vision is lost, as with the leading cause of blindness, age-related macular degeneration, peripheral vision remains intact. And patients can be taught to exploit this, the Macular Disease Society says. It has developed a training scheme and is calling for professionals to adopt the system across the UK. The macula is a small area of the retina at the back of the eye made up of specialist cells which process central vision as well as the fine detail of what we see. ur scheme has transformed lives - helping people to relearn basic skills they thought to have lost for good. People with macular degeneration rarely go totally blind but even those with a relatively mild version of the disease cannot drive and have difficulty reading, recognising faces and watching television. But studies show people can be taught to use their peripheral vision to fill in the gaps, using "eccentric viewing" and "steady eye techniques". When someone with central vision loss looks directly at an object it may disappear, go faint, blur or distort. But when they look above, below or to one side of it, they see it more clearly... BBC