Learning to see again: The role of perceptual learning and user engagement in sight restoration

Retinal and cortical implants show potential in restoring a rudimentary form of vision to people living with profound blindness, but the visual sensations (“phosphenes”) produced by current devices often seem unnatural or distorted. Consequently, the ability of implant users to learn to make use of this artificial vision plays a critical role in whether some functional vision is successfully regained. In this talk, I will discuss recent work detailing the potential and limitations of perceptual learning in helping implant users learn to see again. Although the abilities of visual implant users tend to improve with training, there is little evidence that this is due to distortions becoming less perceptually apparent, but instead may be due to better interpretation of distorted input. Unlike those with natural vision, implant recipients must accommodate various visual anomalies, such as inconsistent spatial distortions and phosphene fading. Furthermore, perceptual measures such as grating acuity and motion discrimination, which are often used with the intention of objectively assessing visual function, may be modulated via gamification, highlighting the importance of user engagement in basic psychophysical tasks. Gamification may be particularly effective at engaging reward systems in the brain, potentially fostering greater plasticity through more varied stimuli and active attentional engagement. However, the effectiveness of such gamified approaches varies, suggesting a need for personalized strategies in visual rehabilitation.