短时弱视眼形觉剥夺诱发成人弱视患者眼优势可塑性的特征及机制研究

China has large numbers of adult amblyopes. Patients are currently offered no treatment in clinical practice. As a neurodevelopmental disorder of the visual cortex, amblyopia has become an established model for investigating human brain plasticity. The search for alternative treatments to use adult amblyopes’ residual plasticity, and in particular for treatments that regulate the interocular imbalance, has long been the Holy Grail of vision researchers. Recently, we found a new form of binocular plasticity in that patching one eye of a binocularly normal subject for a short term strengthens that eye’s contribution to the binocular percept when the patch is removed. We now want to spearhead an investigation into the effect and the nature of the underlying processing of this plasticity in adult amblyopia. In particular, this grant, involves both behavioral approaches and visual psychophysics theories, combines with steady-state visual evoked potential measure, aims to explore the effect of “short-term visual deprivation in adult amblyopic eye” induced sensory eye dominance plasticity in the modulation of interocular suppression in adult amblyopes, and to verify the “Contrast-gain control” hypothesis. Relative data will reveal the property of such plasticity in adult amblyopes and the underlying mechanisms. In addition, it will greatly advance the understanding of brain plasticity and the visual deficits in amblyopia, which therefor serve as an important reference for probing new treatments for adult amblyopia.

我国有着数量庞大的成人弱视患者。迄今为止，对其的治疗仍是临床难点。作为一种视觉神经系统异常发育的模型，弱视也是脑可塑性研究的热点。当前的科研重点集中在对患者残余视觉可塑性的发掘，尤其是眼优势可塑性的探索上。在此背景下，本项目拟以申请人及其他国际同行近期发现的“短时单眼形觉剥夺增强被剥夺眼的眼优势度”这一新的成人眼优势可塑性现象为切入点，以行为学测量和视觉心理物理学理论为研究和分析手段，结合稳态视觉诱发电位记录，系统研究“短时弱视眼形觉剥夺”诱发的眼优势可塑性在调节成人弱视患者眼间抑制中的规律，并验证我们提出的“对比度增益调控”假说，以期客观地论证该眼优势可塑性在成人弱视治疗中的可能作用并揭示其相应的神经基础。相关结果还将有助于加深我们对大脑可塑性以及弱视损伤机制等问题的理解，并有望为开发成人弱视患者可塑性提供新策略。

我国有着数量庞大的成人弱视患者。迄今为止，对其的治疗仍是临床难点。作为一种视觉神经系统异常发育的模型，弱视也是脑可塑性研究的热点。当前的科研重点集中在对患者残余视觉可塑性的发掘，尤其是眼优势可塑性的探索上。在此背景下，本项目以申请人及其他国际同行近期发现的“短时单眼形觉剥夺增强被剥夺眼的眼优势度”这一新的成人眼优势可塑性现象为切入点，对弱视和正常被试眼优势度的测量与调节的特征和机制进行了系列研究。相关研究均按计划进行，进展顺利。我们的系列研究表明，弱视会造成患者纹内和纹外皮层视觉功能的异常，尤其是双眼功能相关的损伤；双眼视觉感知功能可受单眼亮度、形觉、方位等剥夺的调节，发生位点在视觉通路的早期，且调节效应可长期累积；双眼视觉感知功能亦可被屈光适应和Lasik手术调节，但较难被眼位矫正调节。这些结果为我们更好的理解弱视的双眼视觉神经系统及脑可塑性等重要问题提供了重要参考，为弱视治疗提供了新的思路。..本课题受基金资助，已经发表了14篇SCI论文，累积影响因子（以5年影响因子计算）57.5分，申请人为这些论文的第一或（共）通讯作者。部分工作（Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2017； Neuroscience 2017a, 2017b）入选中华医学会眼科学分会视光学组2017年十大科研进展。