Most of our brain is devoted to visual function – 80%, in fact! So, almost any brain injury – from a cerebrovascular accident, head trauma, aneurysm, brain tumor or neuro surgery – results in damage to visual function, called Post Traumatic Visual Syndrome. The most common symptoms include:
- Double vision
- Visual spatial disorientation or mismatch
- Hemianopsia (loss of peripheral vision)
- Photophobia
- Depth perception impairment
- Tracking problems
- Visual midline shift (confusion on where the center of the body is)
- Visual neglect (ignoring one side of the world)
The visual skills that are affected can include:
- Eye teaming problems
- Eye tracking dysfunction
- Visual perceptual impairment
- Loss of eye hand or eye body coordination
Rehabilitative vision therapy can help people relearn visual skills that were damaged by the brain injury. This works by training another part of the brain that wasn’t damaged by using neuroplasticity. For a list of professionals who specialize in Rehabilitative Optometry, or more information, go to
www.nora.cc.
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