Editorial: Residual Vision and Plasticity after Visual System Damage

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This paper explains research findings both from animals and humans who sustained brain injury in early development and in adulthood. The findings demonstrate the degree of residual vision the injured brain possesses and summarize the effects of drugs and training on the plasticity of the visual system.

It was concluded that the visual system is able to respond in many ways in an adaptive manner to lesions inflicted early in life and adulthood. These changes may bring about spontaneous recovery of visual functions as long as the brain contains a sufficient capacity of residual vision. Both in children and adults, systematic visual training can help patients to regain some visual functions which have previously been considered to be irrevocably lost.

Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 15 (1999) 73-79.