Recovery from blindness is the phenomenon of a blind person gaining the ability to see, usually as a result of medical treatment. As a thought experiment, the phenomenon is usually referred to as Molyneux's problem.
Recent scientific advances have meant that eyesight can be partially restored to those who previously would have been blind for life. However, scientists have discovered that the rewiring of the senses that occurs in the brains of the long-term blind means that visual restoration may never be complete.
The approach that has been most successful in restoring photoreceptor loss that results in complete blindness is the use of retinal prosthetic devices, with two now approved for clinical use (2).
The combination of a brain implant and a prosthetic that incorporates a camera allows her to see basic shapes and even play games — without using her eyes.
How much vision loss is treatable or preventable? The IAPB Vision Atlas and the Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health report that 90% of vision loss can be prevented or treated.
It's no surprise that most blind adults are older than the general population. Our study shows that their average age is 62, and one out of every three is over the age of 75. Who do they live with? One in five blind men lives alone, but that decreases after age 75.
Vision Impairment is Associated with Mortality. A meta-analysis finds that vision impairment and blindness are tied to an increased risk of mortality, prompting the need to address global eye health disparities. The global population is aging, and so are their eyes.
If you're legally blind, you can still see -- just not that clearly. Normal vision is 20/20. That means you can clearly see an object 20 feet away. If you're legally blind, your vision is 20/200 or less in your better eye or your field of vision is less than 20 degrees.
Some blind people see full visual scenes while they dream, like sighted people do. Others see some visual images but not robust scenes. Others yet do not have a visual component to their dreams at all, although some researchers debate the degree to which this is true.
Therefore, people who are blind since birth still technically have the ability to experience visual sensations in the brain. They just have nothing sending electrical impulses with visual information to the brain. In other words, they are still capable of having visual experiences.
Things such as light and darkness help cue the body for sleep and wakefulness. Blind people also experience circadian rhythms. And most visually impaired people are able to sense light around them, despite not being able to see it directly.
Most blind people with no perception of light, however, experience continual circadian desynchrony through a failure of light information to reach the hypothalamic circadian clock, resulting in cyclical episodes of poor sleep and daytime dysfunction.
They may wear sunglasses to protect against UV light, to shield their eyes from bright light, or for aesthetic purposes. Additional reasons blind people sometimes wear sunglasses include maximizing their vision, protecting against injuries, and communicating their blindness to others.
The answer might surprise you! Most people associate blindness or visual impairment with total darkness. In truth, some 85 percent of people who are legally blind do have some remaining vision and perceive light.
Primarily though, most completely deaf people think in sign language. Similar to how an “inner voice” of a hearing person is experienced in one's own voice, a completely deaf person sees or, more aptly, feels themselves signing in their head as they “talk” in their heads.
Achromatopsia is also known as “complete color blindness” and is the only type that fully lives up to the term “color blind”. It is extremely rare, however, those who have achromatopsia only see the world in shades of grey, black and white.
You might feel like you're legally blind if you can't see beyond a foot in front of you without wearing glasses, but as long as your vision can be corrected to 20/20 with a visual aid, such as glasses, then you are not considered legally blind.
A person is considered legally blind if they cannot see at six metres what someone with normal vision can see at 60 metres or if their field of vision is less than 20 degrees in diameter.
Blindness is the inability to see or a lack of vision. In the most severe cases, there's an inability to see even light. It also means that you can't correct your vision with eyeglasses, contact lenses, eye drops or other medical therapy, or surgery.
Floaters, Gray Shadows in Your Vision, and Flashing Lights
While floaters aren't apparent symptoms that signal you're losing vision, if there are a lot of them, accompanied by a sudden onset of a gray curtain in your vision field with flashing lights, you should see your doctor right away.
While there is no guarantee that a sudden change in vision will cause blindness, ignoring sudden vision changes highly increases the likelihood that you will go blind. We cannot stress this enough: If you experience rapid changes in vision quality, see a doctor as soon as possible.