Amblyopia

This study is initiated and conducted by the Shanghai Eye Disease Prevention and Treatment Center / Shanghai Eye Hospital. Many people once believed that amblyopia (commonly known as "lazy eye") could only be treated during childhood (the critical period of visual development) and that nothing could be done once we reached adulthood. However, modern visual science research has revealed that the adult visual cortex still retains a certain degree of "neuroplasticity" (the brain's ability to reorganize, learn, and adapt). The Gabor target training used in this study-powered by RevitalVision software-is a scientifically proven visual training program. By repeatedly performing visual tasks near your perception threshold on a computer screen, this training exercises your eye-brain coordination, helping your brain process visual information much more efficiently. To help you and your family participate with peace of mind, we have compiled the following answers to frequently asked questions: Q1: How will I participate in this study? What is the difference between the two groups? To scientifically compare the training's effectiveness, this study uses a rigorous randomized controlled design. A total of 80 eligible participants will be randomly assigned by a computer program in a 1:1 ratio to one of two groups: Immediate Training Group: You will begin the 12-week home-based Gabor visual training right after randomization. Your study participation ends after your Week 12 follow-up. Delayed Training Group: During the first 12 weeks after randomization, you will simply wear your prescribed glasses and go about your daily life without active visual training. After completing your Week 12 eye evaluation, you will receive the exact same 12-week Gabor visual training for free (conducted from Week 12 to Week 24). Please be assured: No matter which group you are assigned to, every eligible participant will ultimately receive the exact same 12-week professional visual training. This "delayed treatment" design is highly ethical. It ensures everyone gets treated while allowing us to compare the two groups transitionally during the first 12 weeks, thereby ruling out other factors like "getting used to the vision charts" or "gradually adjusting to new glasses". Q2: How is the visual training performed? Is it difficult to do at home? The training is fully home-based, meaning you do not need to visit the hospital constantly. However, it requires your dedication and, ideally, supervision from your family: Training Tools: You will use the specialized RevitalVision perceptual learning software on a calibrated computer monitor. Training Environment: The training should be done in a dark or standard low-light room. Your only main light source should be the computer screen, and you will sit exactly 1.5 meters away. Glasses \& Patching: You must wear your prescribed study glasses during training. If you have monocular (one-sided) amblyopia, you will need to patch your stronger eye (non-study eye), using only your weaker eye (amblyopia eye) to view the screen. Frequency \& Duration: You will train 4 times a week, for about 30 minutes per session, over a continuous span of 12 weeks. The software is adaptive: it automatically adjusts the difficulty of your next session based on your performance to keep you at your optimal training zone. Q3: What do I need to do at the hospital during the study? Your safety and visual health are our top priorities. We will provide meticulous, standardized eye examinations throughout the study: Before the training begins, you will go through an 8- to 12-week "Refractive Stability Phase". During this time, we will perform cycloplegic refraction (dilation) and prescribe your glasses, checking your vision multiple times to ensure your baseline sight is completely stable. During the study, you will only need to visit the clinic for follow-ups at Weeks 6 and 12 (the Delayed Group will also have visits at Weeks 18 and 24). At these visits, our examiners (who do not know which group you are in to ensure objectivity) will measure your vision using standard ETDRS charts, evaluate your contrast sensitivity (using the computerized FrACT test), assess your stereoacuity (3D vision), and capture advanced 3D structural scans of your retina and choroid using Swept-Source OCT. Q4: Is the training safe? What if my vision gets worse? The visual training is entirely physical and non-invasive, with an excellent safety record. In very rare cases, some participants might experience mild, temporary eye strain, headaches, or slight discomfort when they first start training. Double-Safety \& Rescue Protocols: We have set strict "rescue criteria". If at any point during your observation or training, your vision drops significantly or if you experience persistent double vision, we will immediately initiate a professional assessment. If necessary, we will halt the training and provide standard clinical medical care.

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether adding noninvasive brain stimulation to augmented reality-based vision therapy can improve vision in adults aged 18 to 40 years with unilateral anisometropic amblyopia, commonly called "lazy eye." Anisometropic amblyopia develops during childhood when the two eyes have different focusing powers and the brain relies more on one eye than the other. The main questions this study aims to answer are: * Does active high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) improve best-corrected visual acuity in the amblyopic eye and depth perception more than sham stimulation? * Does the combined treatment improve contrast sensitivity, suppression between the eyes, and measures of retinal and visual brain function? All participants will receive the same augmented reality-based dichoptic therapy. This therapy presents different visual information to each eye and lowers the contrast seen by the stronger eye. This gives the weaker, amblyopic eye a visual advantage and encourages both eyes to work together while participants carry out normal daily activities. During the first 2 weeks, participants will also receive either active HD-tDCS or sham stimulation immediately before the augmented reality therapy. Active HD-tDCS delivers a weak electrical current through small electrodes placed on the scalp. Sham stimulation uses the same equipment and procedures, but the current is applied only briefly at the beginning. Comparing the two groups will help researchers determine whether active brain stimulation provides additional benefits beyond those of augmented reality therapy alone. Participants will: * Complete 40-minute augmented reality therapy sessions four times per week for 10 weeks. * Receive eight 20-minute sessions of active or sham HD-tDCS during the first 2 weeks, immediately before the augmented reality therapy. * Attend assessment visits before treatment, after 2 weeks, and after 10 weeks. These visits will include vision tests, retinal imaging, tests of retinal function, and brain imaging.

This project addresses the challenge of visual function intervention in children with monocular anisometropic amblyopia. It employs two innovatively designed digital games combined with occlusion therapy to conduct visual function training through parent-child interaction in home or multi-scenario environments. The study will compare this combined approach against traditional occlusion therapy alone, evaluating improvements in visual function, intrinsic motivation, and emotion regulation before and after the intervention. The research aims to promote the implementation and dissemination of personalized and engaging healthcare services. Ultimately, it seeks to establish a comprehensive visual function training product and service system suitable for daily use in home settings, with the goals of reducing medical anxiety in children and holistically enhancing treatment efficacy, training compliance, and overall clinical experience.

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine the efficacy of valproate as an adjunct therapy to treat amblyopia beyond the critical period in children aged 8-17 years who have amblyopia of ≥3 lines of interocular best-corrected (with glasses) visual acuity difference. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does valproate enable clinically meaningful and durable visual recovery from amblyopia? * Do valproate-treated patients show a change in amblyopic eye visual acuity (lines)? Participants will undergo daily patching for 2 hours (standard of care) plus the addition of valproate or placebo for a total of 16 weeks.

The goal of this randomized, double-blind clinical trial is to determine whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can effectively and safely improve vision in children aged 4-14 years with strabismic or anisometropic amblyopia that has not responded to conventional patching therapy. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does tDCS produce significant and sustained improvements in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereopsis in children with amblyopia? Is tDCS a safe, well-tolerated, and faster alternative or complementary treatment compared with standard occlusion therapy? Does tDCS induce functional and structural changes in the visual cortex associated with increased neuroplasticity, including modulation of GABAergic activity? If there is a comparison group: Researchers will compare active tDCS with sham (placebo) stimulation to see if active treatment leads to greater visual recovery and cortical changes than placebo. Participants will: Receive several sessions of active or sham tDCS using low-intensity electrical stimulation applied to visual brain areas. Undergo standard visual assessments, including visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereopsis. Complete neurophysiological and neuroimaging evaluations (EEG, pattern visual evoked potentials, and functional MRI). Provide biochemical measures related to GABA levels. This study aims to validate tDCS as a non-invasive, child-friendly, and effective therapy that may overcome the limitations of patching and support its inclusion in paediatric clinical practice.

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an autostereoscopic 3D amblyopia training system works to improve vision in children and adolescents with amblyopia. It will also learn about the safety and tolerability of the 3D training system. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does autostereoscopic 3D vision training improve best corrected visual acuity in the amblyopic eye compared to conventional patching therapy? * What side effects or discomfort do participants experience during 3D training versus patching? Researchers will compare the autostereoscopic 3D training system to conventional daily eye patching to see which treatment works better for improving vision in amblyopia. Participants will: * Be randomly assigned to either the 3D training group or the patching group * Complete daily home treatment for 6 months - either 20 minutes of 3D vision training or 2 hours of continuous eye patching * Visit the clinic at baseline, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months for eye exams and vision tests * Have their treatment progress monitored remotely through training data logs or patching diaries

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the efficacy and safety of dichoptic treatment based on Augmented Reality (AR) technology in treating monocular amblyopia aged 12 to 55 years, and compare dichoptic AR treatment with the standard patching therapy. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does dichoptic AR treatment safely and effectively improve visual acuity and other monocular/binocular visual functions in older children and adults with amblyopia? Is binocular therapy superior to occlusion therapy?

Amblyopia, or lazy eye, is best defined by the American Academy of Ophthalmology as a unilateral or bilateral reduction of the best corrected visual acuity that occurs in the setting of an otherwise normal eye, or a structural abnormality involving the eye or visual pathway with reduction in visual acuity that cannot be attributed only to the effect of the structural abnormality. Which causes an abnormal visual experience early in life, with consequences such as deficiencies in the ability to perceive contrast and/or movement, visual acuity, accommodation and stereopsis. The treatment of choice consists in patching of the fellow eye 2 hours per day. The disadvantage of this treatment modality is that patients end up not complying and when treatment is interrupted, lazy eye reappears. Amblyopia was thought to be a monocular disease, now a days there are reports of cortical visual paths changes in both eyes (the fellow and amblyopia eye), believing that it might be a monocular consequence of a binocular disease. Following that statement new treatment studies have arisen, stimulating both eyes not only to improve visual acuity in the lazy eye, but to restore binocular function as well. These treatments use videogames in celular phones, computers, or tablets where the fellow eye is exposed to reduced contrast and the lazy eye is exposed to full-contrast. Although the evidence is promising, more studies are needed to establish effectivity and security of this treatment modality.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether viewing asynchronous movies leads to better visual outcomes in young children with amblyopia than standard-of-care occlusion therapy with an adhesive patch and whether this is associated with better adherence to treatment.

Amblyopia is a developmental anomaly resulting from abnormal visual experiences in early life. Amblyopia causes reduced visual acuity in the absence of a pathology. Adult sensory systems are believed to be structurally invariant beyond early, critical periods of development. However, recent evidence suggest that visual functions in adults with amblyopia can be improved with optical correction alone. This study aims to investigate whether improvements in best corrected visual acuity and other visual functions can result following appropriate optical correction in adults with amblyopia. Functional measures relating to vision, binocular vision, and eye movements will be used to assess the efficacy of refractive correction for improving vision. This study will help us better understand the improvements in visual functions following optical correction, as well as the mechanisms underlying neuroplasticity in adults with amblyopia.

Amblyopia and strabismus are characterized by a reduction in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, grating acuity, vernier acuity, reading difficulties and binocular visual function deficits. Treated patients have residual visual function deficits. The purpose of the current study is to quantify various visual functions in amblyopic and strabismic participants at baseline, during and at the completion of treatment.

To evaluate the effectiveness of enhanced binocular amblyopia treatments in achieving a more complete and stable recovery.

Amblyopia is described as a limitation of the visual function of one or both eyes with no pathological cause, with a prevalence of about 1-5% of the total world population. This disorder is caused by early abnormal visual experience with a functional imbalance between the two eyes owing to anisometropia, strabismus, congenital cataract and ptosis, resulting in a dramatic loss of visual acuity (VA) in an apparently healthy eye. Clinically, amblyopia can be defined as the presence in one or both eyes of a VA of 6/12 or worse, with one or more lines of difference in VA between eyes in unilateral amblyopia which cannot be improved by refractive correction. This condition is an alteration of the visual cortex function which is due to suppression and deprivation of one eye leading to unilateral visual deterioration. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive technique that can reveal morphology of the retinal layers in vivo. OCT determines structural changes in the macula that may be correlated with measures of subjective visual function such as visual acuity and visual field. OCT angiography (OCTA) can provide vascular system visualization of the posterior segment in amblyopic eyes. Visual evoked potentials (VEPs) are a non-invasive technique routinely used in clinical and preclinical practice. VEPs allow to quantify the functional integrity of the visual system from the retina via the optic nerves, optic tracts, to the thalamus, and form projections to the visual cortices. In strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia, VEP responses are reduced. VEP may be used as an alternative objective method for diagnosis and monitoring of amblyopia. Passive treatments such as occlusion, optical and/or pharmacological penalization, and Bangerter foils have been demonstrated to be potentially useful treatments for amblyopia. Researches are being done on new pharmacological options to improve and maintain VA after occlusion treatment in amblyopia. Adults with amblyopia cannot be treated because their brains do not have enough plasticity. However, results obtained both in clinical trials and in animal models have challenged this traditional view, unmasking a previously unsuspected potential for promoting recovery after the end of the critical period for visual cortex plasticity. These studies point toward the intracortical inhibitory transmission as a crucial brake for therapeutic rehabilitation and recovery from amblyopia in the adult brain. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase serotonin activity in the brain. While they are mostly known for their antidepressant properties, they have been shown to improve visual functions in amblyopia and impact cognitive functions ranging from attention to motivation and sensitivity to reward.

Craniosynostosis are cranial deformations due to the premature closure of one or more cranial sutures. These deformations affect approximately one in 2.500 births. In most cases, craniosynostoses are isolated with unknown (non syndrome). On the other hand, 20% of these deformations are associated with other concentration (syndrome). Craniosynostosis has morphological (associated dysmorphism) and functional (growth conflict between the skull and the brain) repercussions. Ophthalmological disorders are frequent: refractive disorders, oculomotor disorders, optic nerve damage, sensory damage. This retrospective study aims to describe the ocular clinical characteristics associated with craniosynostosis in patients followed at the Amiens University Hospital.

Participants eligible for the study will be randomly allocated (1:1:1) to receive either Luminopia dichoptic treatment while wearing optical correction if needed, Vivid Vision dichoptic treatment while wearing optical correction if needed, or continued optical correction alone if needed, with clinical assessments at 9- and 18-weeks post-randomization. At the 18-week primary outcome visit, participants who were randomly assigned to receive optical correction alone if needed with an IOD of 1 logMAR line (5 letters) or more, will be offered randomization to Luminopia or Vivid Vision dichoptic therapy and if they accept, followed forward with visits at 27- and 36-weeks post-randomization. The study will end for all other participants at 18 weeks.

In children 4 to 7 years of age, to determine if treatment with 1 hour per day 6 days per week of watching dichoptic movies/shows wearing the Luminopia headset is non-inferior to treatment with 2 hours of patching per day 7 days per week with respect to change in amblyopic eye distance VA from randomization to 26 weeks.

A randomized trial to determine whether simultaneous treatment with spectacles and patching has an equivalent VA outcome compared with sequential treatment, first with spectacles alone followed by patching (if needed), for previously untreated amblyopia in children 3 to \<13 years of age.

This is a prospective, single-arm, non-inferiority clinical trial designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and adherence of AmblyoFix binocular digital therapy for the treatment of unilateral amblyopia in children aged 7 to 12 years. Outcomes will be compared against a retrospective cohort of patients of the same age range previously treated with standard occlusion (patching) at the same clinic. A total of 33 participants will be enrolled, allowing for up to 15% attrition to ensure at least 28 evaluable completers at Week 24. Eligible participants must have unilateral amblyopia with amblyopic-eye best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) between 0.3 and 1.3 logMAR and an interocular difference of at least 0.2 logMAR, with stable refractive correction for at least 16 weeks prior to enrollment. The primary outcome is the change in amblyopic-eye BCVA (logMAR) from baseline to Week 24, assessed under standardized Snellen or ETDRS protocol by certified, masked outcome assessors. Secondary outcomes include adherence (captured via in-software usage logs), safety (BCVA worsening ≥2 lines and ocular adverse events), and patient-reported outcomes (acceptability, usability, satisfaction). An interim analysis will be conducted at Week 6 and at Week 12 to review early efficacy and safety, with the option to recommend early termination if robust evidence of non-inferiority is demonstrated. In addition to the primary study population of unilateral amblyopia, an exploratory subgroup of 3 or more participants with bilateral amblyopia may be enrolled for observational evaluation. Treatment will initially target the eye with worse BCVA as selected in the AmblyoFix software. Upon sufficient improvement, as determined by the Principal Investigator, treatment may be switched to the other eye within the software settings. Data from the bilateral exploratory cohort will be analyzed descriptively and reported separately. These data will not contribute to the primary non-inferiority analysis. Participants and caregivers cannot be blinded due to the nature of the intervention; however, outcome assessors and statisticians will remain masked to study objectives and comparator data to minimize bias. Follow-up assessments will occur at baseline, Week 6, Week 12, and Week 24, with no additional amblyopia treatment permitted during the study unless clinically required. This trial is designed to rigorously determine whether AmblyoFix is a safe, effective, and non-inferior alternative to patching, with the potential to improve adherence, usability, and acceptability in real-world amblyopia therapy.

The purpose of the study is to determine whether a patch-free occlusion therapy leads to better visual outcomes in young children with amblyopia than standard-of-care occlusion therapy with an adhesive patch and whether this is associated with better adherence to the treatment.

This clinical study investigates whether watching 3D films can help improve the vision of children with residual amblyopia (lazy eye), that is, those children who, despite having undergone usual treatments such as glasses or patching, still maintain some visual deficit. The main objective is to verify whether viewing in 3D is better than viewing in 2D in improving depth vision (stereopsis), visual acuity and ocular alignment. The hypothesis is that 3D films, by providing richer binocular stimuli, will produce greater improvements than the same 2D films. Children between 4 and 14 years of age with residual, stable and previously treated unilateral amblyopia will be included. Participants will be recruited from the pediatric ophthalmology/optometry clinics of the Mútua University Hospital The study will be conducted in two locations: the visual examinations will be performed at the Mútua University Hospital in Terrassa, and the film sessions at the Faculty of Optics and Optometry of Terrassa (FOOT, UPC), in rooms prepared with a projector and 3D glasses. The design is randomized and controlled. In a first phase, the children will be randomly divided into two groups: one group will watch 3 films in 3D and the other will watch the same films in 2D. Then, in a second phase, all participants will watch 3 additional sessions in 3D. Four evaluation visits will be made: before starting, after phase 1, after phase 2 and a follow-up two months later. These visits will measure stereopsis, visual acuity, and ocular deviation with standard optometric tests. Watching 3D movies is a safe and non-invasive activity; therefore, no significant risks are expected beyond some possible mild and transient discomfort such as eye strain or headache, which will be recorded if it occurs. Potential benefits include improved depth perception and other visual functions, and the results could open the door to new, fun and motivating therapeutic options for other children with amblyopia in the future.

Amblyopia, a developmental abnormality that impairs spatial vision, is a major cause of vision loss, resulting in reduced visual acuity and reduced sensitivity to contrast. This study uses psychophysical measures to study neural plasticity in both adults and children with amblyopia.

This study is being done to assess the effect of at-home amblyopia treatment with Curesight™ for children aged 8 to 12 years. Curesight™ allows you to stream any videos on a computer screen at home but the amblyopic eye will see the entire screen clearly while part of the image will be blurred for the other eye. There is already a pivotal clinical trial showing that this treatment is effective for young children and Curesight™ has been cleared for use as an amblyopia treatment by the FDA for children as young as 4 years.

Amblyopia is the most prevalent cause of reduced monocular visual acuity in children and young adults, with estimates of prevalence ranging from 1% to 5%. The most common associated amblyogenic risk factors are uncorrected anisometropia, strabismus, or a combination of these. In addition to reduced visual acuity, amblyopic patients may also have measurable dysfunction of accommodation, fixation, binocularity, vergence, reading fluency, depth perception, and contrast sensitivity. For the first time since the incorporation of atropine penalization into amblyopia management, physicians can now offer Luminopia, an FDA-approved dual action dichoptic treatment, to patients with amblyopia. Since the product became commercially available in November 2022, the number of patients on Luminopia therapy continues to grow. This presents a unique opportunity to gather real world evidence from a large number of patients, representative of how ophthalmologists and optometrists are applying this novel treatment in the real world. A registry of the clinical data associated with Luminopia treatment, with IRB oversight, will provide answers to key scientific questions using a large dataset.

Amblyopia is one of the common, preventable and treatable causes of decreased acuity of one or both eyes without a specific organic cause. Common treatments include optical correction, patching (closing the healthy eye), perceptual learning, and drug treatments. The patient's low cooperation, reduction in effectiveness and long treatment period of common methods have led to the design of new treatments that eliminate these disadvantages, among which binocular vision treatments can be mentioned. The purpose of this study is to apply a new and innovative method under binocular conditions in the treatment of anisometropic amblyopia in adults. In this randomized clinical trial study, 30 people (15 patients in the case group and 15 patients in the control group) aged 18 to 40 years with amblyopia (decrease in best corrected vision worse than 0.3 logarithmic units in one of the eyes or the difference of the corrected minimum visual acuity of two lines between two eyes) in the form of two groups of 15 people (case and control) will be included in the study. Patients will be randomly divided into two groups: case and control. Interactive Binocular Treatment (I-BiT) is used in the case group and usual games without I-BiT system are used as placebo in the other group. For this purpose, the games will be presented in the control group in such a way that the two eyes will not be dissociated and the patient will see all the targets in the same way with his two eyes. I-BiT is a new method for the treatment of amblyopia in which a person plays age-appropriate games using special glasses in a 3D space. The stimuli are shown differently to the two eyes and both eyes are involved in the treatment process. The selection of people in two groups will be such that background variables such as age, sex, as well as the severity of amblyopia or vision loss in the two groups are the same and confounding factors are under control. First, all eye examinations such as measuring visual acuity, lateral vision, checking refractive errors with and without cycloplegic drops, checking the alignment of visual axes, and also checking the anterior and posterior segments of the eye are performed. After the definitive diagnosis of amblyopia, people in both groups will be asked to use the given virtual games in the same way for one month, 5 sessions per week, each session for 30 minutes. In order to control the amount of use of computer games by patients, the duration of time that people use games will be controlled and recorded online using software by design engineers. Patients will be examined before treatment, one month after treatment and also one month after stopping treatment.

Amblyopia, characterized by reduced visual acuity, develops in childhood due to insufficient sensory stimulation of the affected eye. It is the leading cause of low vision and loss of stereoscopic vision in both children and adults. Currently, 99 million people worldwide are affected, with recent projections indicating 222 million by 2040. Amblyopia can result from anisometropia (70%), strabismus (30%), or the presence of an ocular pathology (1%). Early management of these conditions (before the age of 7) can prevent the onset of amblyopia. Therefore, screening for these conditions is a major public health challenge to reduce the prevalence and associated costs of visual impairment. The French-speaking Association of Strabology and Pediatric Ophthalmology (AFSOP) recommends systematic amblyopia screening for 3-year-old children. This screening involves measuring monocular visual acuity in both eyes (LEA chart at 3 meters), checking for strabismus (cover/uncover test), and performing a stereoscopic vision test (e.g., Lang I test). Amblyopia is currently underdiagnosed for two main reasons: 1) it is often asymptomatic (75% of cases) and therefore cannot be detected without systematic screening; and 2) there is significant difficulty in accessing medical care in certain regions, and thus access to professionals capable of performing this screening (doctors, orthoptists). The difficulty in accessing healthcare professionals capable of screening for amblyopia in children aged 3 to 7 has already been raised. We believe it would be beneficial to have an alternative screening method that is equivalent to the AFSOP-recommended method and accessible in areas with limited healthcare professionals. An eye-tracking system implemented in a virtual reality (VR) headset has recently been developed for monitoring eye movements. This system has shown effectiveness in rehabilitating visual field impairments in patients with traumatic brain injury. The system allows for remote monitoring of rehabilitation sessions, and data can be downloaded and viewed remotely via Wi-Fi. The main objective of this study will be to estimate the sensitivity of the new VR-based eye-tracking screening method amblyopia screening method using an eye-tracking system implemented in a virtual reality headset compared to standard screening in children aged 3 to 7 years.