Can training in the subacute post-stroke period generate greater visual recovery after V1 damage?

[摘要] Stroke damage to V1 in adult humans causes cortical blindness (CB). Visual training in chronic (>6 months) stroke patients decreases the deficit but recovered vision is subnormal (1,2). In motor stroke, earlier rehabilitation leads to greater recovery (3). Here, we asked if visual training initiated soon after stroke leads to better improvement in CB. Subacute (<3 months) stroke patients were trained to discriminate global direction of random dot stimuli. Initially, blind field performance was at chance. After daily home training for 3 months, CBs attained intact-level motion integration thresholds at all trained blind field locations. Unlike chronic CBs, subacute CBs exhibited transfer of recovery to untrained locations up to 10 deg deeper into the blind field. CBs who began training <2 months post-stroke also demonstrated improved performance on an untrained fine direction discrimination task. Thus, training initiated in subacute CB generates faster, more generalized visual improvements than in chronic CB.

[学科分类] 眼科学