Eye-Search: A web-based therapy that improves visual search in hemianopia

Abstract

Persisting hemianopia frequently complicates lesions of the posterior cerebral hemispheres, leaving patients impaired on a range of key activities of daily living. Practice-based therapies designed to induce compensatory eye movements can improve hemianopic patients' visual function, but are not readily available. We used a web-based therapy (Eye-Search) that retrains visual search saccades into patients' blind hemifield. A group of 78 suitable hemianopic patients took part. After therapy (800 trials over 11 days), search times into their impaired hemifield improved by an average of 24%. Patients also reported improvements in a subset of visually guided everyday activities, suggesting that Eye-Search therapy affects real-world outcomes.