Multisensory Rehabilitation of Hemianopia

Non-Invasive Multisensory Rehabilitation of Hemianopia

The current proposal is to generate "proof of concept" evidence that hemianopia can be successfully rehabilitated in humans when this multisensory rehabilitation paradigm is used.

The over-arching objective is to evaluate the functional recovery of vision in hemianopic patients engaged with a multisensory training paradigm. Unilaterally blind participants will participate in weekly training sessions in which they are exposed to high-density spatiotemporally congruent and consistent visual-auditory stimulation. The participants will be tested on a battery of visual tasks probing different levels of function in different environments in a longitudinal study to track recovery.

Inclusion Criteria:

• adults (<85) of either sex
• diagnosis of a stable homonymous hemianopia (>6 months) with absence of hemineglect
• lesion encompassing at least primary visual cortex but sparing parietal cortex
• normal auditory and cognitive function
• willingness to participate in the three month program
• ability to perform the visual discriminations in their intact field

Exclusion Criteria:

• adults (>85)
• normal auditory and cognitive function
• unwilling to participate in the three month program
• inability to perform the visual discriminations in their intact field