PROJECT: JTC2015: Neuro-DREAM

Amblyopia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of the visual cortex arising from abnormal visual experience early in life. It is a major cause of impaired vision in infants and young children (prevalence around 3.5%) and thus of great clinical importance. Unfortunately, current treatments such as eye patching are ineffective in a large number of patients. However, recent work from our consortium has highlighted the importance of binocular interactions in the development of vision and strongly suggests that alternative treatment methods could lead to greatly improved intervention outcomes in children and adults. To address this issue, Neuro-Dream aims to 1) improve our basic understanding of the development of amblyopia and the underlying brain plasticity at the neurophysiological, computational, and clinical levels, 2) deepen our understanding of the effectiveness of different therapeutic procedures, and 3) develop novel treatment approaches for children and adults. Neuro-DREAM follows an integrated interdisciplinary research approach combining neurophysiological experiments on an animal model of amblyopia, computational modeling, experiments with healthy and amblyopic children and adults, and the development and piloting of novel treatment approaches for different age groups. Neuro-DREAM has the potential to revolutionize the way we treat amblyopia, improving vision and quality-of-life in millions of patients — truly a DREAM come true for all affected families.