A new study indicates that the adult brain might be a lot more flexible than we once thought. There’s an indication that those who are born blind might be able to recover sight in a small degree because of the brain’s ability to heal itself and compensate for injury.
The project started out with the team looking at something called Lebar congenital amaurosis (LCA), which consists of severe damage to the retinas. It is inherited from parents, and occurs from birth onward. Low or no eyesight is one of the most obvious symptoms of this disease. With LCA, this damage occurs because of mutations in several different genes, leading to damage to the photoreceptors within the retina.
Over the years, researchers have found that certain chemicals can help to partially restore eyesight in children. The team wanted to take this concept further and see if adults could benefit, too. They were surprised to see just how helpful the new therapy targets were. Working with adult rodents that had lost their vision, they found that they were able to help the rodents get partial vision back by targeting pathways within the brain with a similar treatment to what was used on the eye in the past.
New research indicates that recovering from blindness might be possible for the human brain.
Vision might start at the retina, but it involves a complex pathway from the retina, along the ocular nerve, and into the brain. But, like with many other things, more than one pathway can be utilized to relay this message.
This study was conducted by the University of California at Irvine. The team published their findings in the journal, Current Biology. And while this is just a very early look at how eyesight could be restored, there’s a lot of promise here. Not only could this help people who have vision issues, there’s the potential that other degenerative health issues could be addressed through this type of research. Hopefully, this acts as inspiration for many future research projects. This project was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Research to Prevent Blindness foundation.
When a loved one is struggling with something serious, research like this gives us hope that there is help out there for them. When someone suffers from a stroke, for example, part of the therapy that they undergo involves helping brain cells to learn motions and activities that were once commonplace over again. When a brain cell dies, it doesn’t come back to life through this therapy. Instead, the brain learns new pathways to send the same signal. This concept is very similar to what the UCI researchers found. Implementing this is difficult, but there’s room for more possibilities than ever before.
Senior care can help make life easier for a loved one that is struggling with their daily lives. It can also help families live a better life as it relieves some of the burden that they were once facing. Your family isn’t a burden, but caring for someone with advanced needs isn’t easy.
The right care service can make this a bit easier. Let’s talk more about how your family might benefit.
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