OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed at analyzing the efficacy on the improvement of the visual function of a dichoptic online cloud-based platform for the treatment of amblyopia in anisometropic children.
METHODS: A quasi-experimental (pretest-post-test) study was conducted in 23 subjects with ages from 5 to 15 years old with anisometropic amblyopia combined with additional presence (2 subjects) or not (21 subjects) of microtropia. A total of 30 home-based training sessions of 30 min per session with Bynocs® platform were prescribed for 6 weeks.
RESULTS: Amblyopic eye logMAR visual acuity (VA) significantly improved from 0.28 ± 0.24 to 0.13 ± 0.20 after the 6-week treatment (p < 0.001). At baseline, 60.9% of participants had VA in amblyopic eye of 0.20 logMAR or worse, whereas this percentage decreased to 21.7% after treatment. Binocular function (BF) significantly improved from 2.82 ± 1.11 to 2.32 ± 0.94 (p < 0.001). Mean compliance was 92%, 87% and 93% at 2, 4 and 6 weeks of treatment, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, home-based dichoptic training with the digital platform evaluated is an effective method to improve amblyopic VA and stereoacuity in children with anisometropic amblyopia combined or not with microtropia.

Categorical learning is important and often challenging in both specialized domains, such as medical image interpretation, and commonplace ones, such as face recognition. Research has shown that comparing items from different categories can enhance the learning of perceptual classifications, particularly when those categories appear highly similar. Here, we developed and tested novel adaptively triggered comparisons (ATCs), in which errors produced during interactive learning dynamically prompted the presentation of active comparison trials. In a facial identity paradigm, undergraduate participants learned to recognize and name varying views of 22 unknown people. In Experiment 1, single-item classification trials were compared to a condition in which ATC trials were generated whenever a participant repeatedly confused two faces. Comparison trials required discrimination between simultaneously presented exemplars from the confused categories. In Experiment 2, an ATC condition was compared to a non-adaptive comparison condition. Participants learned to accuracy and speed criteria, and completed immediate and delayed posttests. ATCs substantially enhanced learning efficiency in both experiments. These studies, using a novel adaptive procedure guided by each learner\'s performance, show that adaptively triggered comparisons improve category learning.

The Augmented Hebbian Reweighting Model (AHRM) has been effectively utilized to model the collective performance of observers in various perceptual learning studies. In this work, we have introduced a novel hierarchical Bayesian Augmented Hebbian Reweighting Model (HB-AHRM) to simultaneously model the learning curves of individual participants and the entire population within a single framework. We have compared its performance to that of a Bayesian Inference Procedure (BIP), which independently estimates the posterior distributions of model parameters for each individual subject without employing a hierarchical structure. To cope with the substantial computational demands, we developed an approach to approximate the likelihood function in the AHRM with feature engineering and linear regression, increasing the speed of the estimation procedure by 20,000 times. The HB-AHRM has enabled us to compute the joint posterior distribution of hyperparameters and parameters at the population, observer, and test levels, facilitating statistical inferences across these levels. While we have developed this methodology within the context of a single experiment, the HB-AHRM and the associated modeling techniques can be readily applied to analyze data from various perceptual learning experiments and provide predictions of human performance at both the population and individual levels. The likelihood approximation concept introduced in this study may have broader utility in fitting other stochastic models lacking analytic forms.

The developed human brain shows remarkable plasticity following perceptual learning, resulting in improved visual sensitivity. However, such improvements commonly require extensive stimuli exposure. Here we show that efficiently enhancing visual perception with minimal stimuli exposure recruits distinct neural mechanisms relative to standard repetition-based learning. Participants (n = 20, 12 women, 8 men) encoded a visual discrimination task, followed by brief memory reactivations of only five trials each performed on separate days, demonstrating improvements comparable with standard repetition-based learning (n = 20, 12 women, 8 men). Reactivation-induced learning engaged increased bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS) activity relative to repetition-based learning. Complementary evidence for differential learning processes was further provided by temporal-parietal resting functional connectivity changes, which correlated with behavioral improvements. The results suggest that efficiently enhancing visual perception with minimal stimuli exposure recruits distinct neural processes, engaging higher-order control and attentional resources while leading to similar perceptual gains. These unique brain mechanisms underlying improved perceptual learning efficiency may have important implications for daily life and in clinical conditions requiring relearning following brain damage.

BACKGROUND: Glaucoma patients with irreversible visual field loss often experience decreased quality of life, impaired mobility, and mental health challenges. Perceptual learning (PL) and transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) have emerged as promising interventions for vision rehabilitation, showing potential in restoring residual visual functions. The Glaucoma Rehabilitation using ElectricAI Transcranial stimulation (GREAT) project aims to investigate whether combining PL and tES is more effective than using either method alone in maximizing the visual function of glaucoma patients. Additionally, the study will assess the impact of these interventions on brain neural activity, blood biomarkers, mobility, mental health, quality of life, and fear of falling.
METHODS: The study employs a three-arm, double-blind, randomized, superiority-controlled design. Participants are randomly allocated in a 1:1:1 ratio to one of three groups receiving: (1) real PL and real tES, (2) real PL and sham tES, and (3) placebo PL and sham tES. Each participant undergoes 10 sessions per block (~ 1 h each), with a total of three blocks. Assessments are conducted at six time points: baseline, interim 1, interim 2, post-intervention, 1-month post-intervention, and 2-month post-intervention. The primary outcome is the mean deviation of the 24-2 visual field measured by the Humphrey visual field analyzer. Secondary outcomes include detection rate in the suprathreshold visual field, balance and gait functions, and electrophysiological and biological responses. This study also investigates changes in neurotransmitter metabolism, biomarkers, self-perceived quality of life, and psychological status before and after the intervention.
CONCLUSIONS: The GREAT project is the first study to assess the effectiveness of PL and tES in the rehabilitation of glaucoma. Our findings will offer comprehensive assessments of the impact of these treatments on a wide range of brain and vision-related metrics including visual field, neural activity, biomarkers, mobility, mental health, fear of falling, and quality of life.
BACKGROUND: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05874258 . Registered on May 15, 2023.

Iconic memory and short-term memory are not only crucial for perception and cognition, but also of great importance to mental health. Here, we first showed that both types of memory could be improved by improving limiting processes in visual processing through perceptual learning. Normal adults were trained in a contrast detection task for ten days, with their higher-order aberrations (HOA) corrected in real-time. We found that the training improved not only their contrast sensitivity function (CSF), but also their iconic memory and baseline information maintenance for short-term memory, and the relationship between memory and CSF improvements could be well-predicted by an observer model. These results suggest that training the limiting component of a cognitive task with visual perceptual learning could improve visual cognition. They may also provide an empirical foundation for new therapies to treat people with poor sensory memory.

UNASSIGNED: Learning through perceptual training using the Gabor patch (GP) has attracted attention as a new vision restoration technique for myopia and age-related deterioration of visual acuity (VA). However, the task itself is monotonous and painful and requires numerous training sessions and some time before being effective, which has been a challenge for its widespread application. One effective means of facilitating perceptual learning is the empowerment of EEG alpha rhythm in the sensory cortex before neurofeedback (NF) training; however, there is a lack of evidence for VA.
UNASSIGNED: We investigated whether four 30-min sessions of GP training, conducted over 2 weeks with/without EEG NF to increase alpha power (NF and control group, respectively), can improve vision in myopic subjects. Contrast sensitivity (CS) and VA were measured before and after each GP training.
UNASSIGNED: The NF group showed an improvement in CS at the fourth training session, not observed in the control group. In addition, VA improved only in the NF group at the third and fourth training sessions, this appears as a consolidation effect (maintenance of the previous training effect). Participants who produced stronger alpha power during the third training session showed greater VA recovery during the fourth training session.
UNASSIGNED: These results indicate that enhanced pretraining alpha empowerment strengthens the subsequent consolidation of perceptual learning and that even a short period of GP training can have a positive effect on VA recovery. This simple protocol may facilitate use of a training method to easily recover vision.

Interactive computer simulations are commonly used as pedagogical tools to support students\' statistical reasoning. This paper examines whether and how these simulations enable their intended effects. We begin by contrasting two theoretical frameworks-dual processes and grounded cognition-in the context of people\'s conceptions about statistical sampling, setting the stage for the potential benefits of simulations in learning such conceptions. Then, we continue with reviewing the educational literature on statistical sampling simulations. Our review tentatively suggests benefits of the simulations for building statistical habits of mind. However, challenges seem to persist when more specific concepts and skills are investigated. With and without simulations, students have difficulty forming an aggregate view of data, interpreting sampling distributions, showing a process-based understanding of the law of large numbers, making statistical inferences, and context-independent reasoning. We propose that grounded cognition offers a framework for understanding these findings, highlighting the bidirectional relationship between perception and conception, perceptual design features, and guided perceptual routines for supporting students\' meaning making from simulations. Finally, we propose testable instructional strategies for using simulations in statistics education.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the possible benefits of the use of perceptual learning and dichoptic therapy combined with patching in children with amblyopia over the use of only patching.
METHODS: Quasi-experimental multicentric study including 52 amblyopic children. Patients who improved their visual acuity (VA) by combining spectacles and patching were included in patching group (PG: 20 subjects), whereas those that did not improved with patching performed visual training (perceptual learning + dichoptic therapy) combined with patching, being assigned to the visual treatment group (VT: 32 subjects). Changes in VA, contrast sensitivity (CS), and stereopsis were monitored during a 6-month follow-up in each group.
RESULTS: Significant improvements in VA were found in both groups at 1 month (p < 0.01). The total improvement of VA was 0.18 ± 0.16 and 0.31 ± 0.35 logMAR in PG and VT groups, respectively (p = 0.317). The Wilcoxon effect size was slightly higher in VT (0.48 vs. 0.54) at 6 months. An enhancement in CS was observed in the amblyopic eye of the VT group for all spatial frequencies at 1 month (p < 0.001). Likewise, the binocular function score also increased significantly in VT group (p = 0.002). A prediction equation of VA improvement at 1 month in VT group was obtained by multiple linear regression analysis (p < 0.001, R2 = 0.747).
CONCLUSIONS: A combined treatment of visual training and patching is effective for obtaining a predictable improvement of VA, CS, and binocularity in patching-resistant amblyopic children.

Human perceptual ability can be improved by perceptual learning through repeated exposure or training. Perceptual learning studies have focused on achieving accurate perception of stimuli by improving perceptual sensitivity. However, eliminating illusions can also be one of the ways of accurate perception. To determine whether the illusion can be attenuated by perceptual learning, the current study used a tilt illusion where the orientation of the grating presented in the center (central grating) was misperceived because of the orientation of the grating presented in the periphery (surrounding grating). In Experiment 1, participants were trained either in the illusion training condition, in which they trained with illusory stimuli presenting both surrounding and central gratings together, or in the control training condition, where only the central grating was presented. The results confirmed that the tilt illusion was reduced only in the illusion training condition. Experiment 2 tested the transfer effect of learning, which is not often observed in perceptual learning. During training, the orientation of the surrounding grating was fixed to see whether the elimination of the illusion also occurred in the surrounding grating with an orientation that was not used during training. A decrease in the illusion was found only in the case of a surrounding grating with trained orientations, and not in the case of surrounding gratings with untrained orientations. These results suggest that the reduction in tilt illusion through training is due to perceptual learning.