Research Interests

The laboratory has a long-term interest in spatial and pattern vision. Our recent research focuses on developing new treatments for amblyopia, commonly known as lazy eye, using a novel perceptual learning approach (Nat Neurosci, 2004; Curr Biol, 2024). The conventional treatment for amblyopia consists of patching the fellow preferred eye, pushing the brain to use the weaker amblyopic eye. Amblyopia was thought to be not reversible after the critical periods of visual development. Encouragingly, our research (J Vis, 2004; J Neurosci, 2008) has shown that adult amblyopia still retains a significant degree of visual plasticity.

Over the past two decades, we have developed numerous amblyopia treatment regimens and have conducted a series of pioneering perceptual learning studies. In particular, our recent research demonstrates that video-game play may have unique features for sharpening amblyopic vision (e.g., PLoS Biol, 2011 ; Ophthalmology, 2018). With the support of Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Walt and Lilly Disney Award for Amblyopia Research (2022), the research team is currently working towards developing a new stereoscopic treatment for restoring stereo vision in patients with amblyopia using 3D video games.

The goals of our research are to study human visual perception and the underlying processing mechanisms, develop new treatment techniques for amblyopia, advance the understanding of visual plasticity of the brain, and translate the knowledge gained into developing clinical techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of ocular/visual disorders.