PFRDG for “Improving Vision in Childhood Amblyopia with Stereoscopic 3D Video Game Training”

Roger W. Li, OD, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Optometry at the NSU College of Optometry (NSUCO). Dr. Li is also a principal investigator overseeing a newly established clinical vision science research laboratory with NSUCO – Vision Enhancement Laboratory. Prior to Joining NSU in Nov 2021, Dr. Li worked at the University of California-Berkeley School of Optometry as a researcher for twenty years. The laboratory has close research connections with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Optometry.

 

Tell me briefly about your recent grant-funded project.

In our laboratory, we will be using 3D video games to treat amblyopia (a.k.a. lazy eye). My research team is currently working towards establishing a novel stereoscopic treatment for restoring stereo vision in patients with amblyopia. We have already had adult patients complete this research program and published encouraging findings in many flagship journals in the fields of biology and ophthalmology. The current grant will further this research work and optimize the treatment protocol for childhood amblyopia.

The design of this clinical trial is to have children with amblyopia complete 80 hours of vision therapy, which consists of playing one hour of a 3D video game 5 days a week for a few months while wearing special filtering lenses and 3D glasses. During this time, the participants come into the lab for regular follow-up eye exams and to have their lens prescription adjusted as their vision changes.

The overarching goals of my laboratory include: studying human visual perception and the underlying processing mechanisms, developing new treatments for amblyopia, advancing the understanding of neural plasticity of the visual brain, and translating the knowledge gained into developing clinical techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of ocular and visual disorders.

 

Who is working with you on this project?

We recently hired a lab manager who is an optometrist with a research degree and have accepted more than twelve research trainees for running the experiments. Most of them are pre-optometry or pre-medicine undergraduate students in the dual admission programs and/or independent study program. Several team members come from other Universities, such as the University of Florida, University of Central Florida and University of Washington, etc. Our research team has a very successful track record of winning competitive travel grants to present our research at eye research conferences.

 

What opportunities and/or benefits does this grant bring to the NSU community (students, faculty, key stakeholders, etc.)?

With the support of this internal research grant, we have collected preliminary data for my extramural grant applications. To expand this research, we recently received a prestigious “RPB Walt and Lilly Disney Award for Amblyopia Research” grant from Research to Prevent Blindness ($100,000; RPB, New York, NY; https://www.newswise.com/articles/nova-southeastern-university-associate-professor-receives-special-grant-for-eye-research) for the project titled “Recovering Stereovision in Childhood Amblyopia with 3D Video Game Training: A Novel Stereoscopic Approach for Amblyopia Treatment”.

This research provides an excellent opportunity for our research trainees to conduct vision research in a leading amblyopia laboratory and to develop their clinical and research skills as productive researchers. We also support collaborative research with the clinical faculty in our university eye clinic.

 

How does this project connect with your other work at NSU?

Over the past twenty years, my collaborators and I have been conducting a series of pioneering perceptual learning studies and have invented many groundbreaking treatment techniques for restoring vision in patients with amblyopia, most notably my video gaming study which received global media attention. While my earlier research programs focused primarily on monocular vision training, the present research is aimed at developing a new binocular technique for improving stereo vision in patients with amblyopia using stereoscopic 3D video games.

 

How has NSU helped you pursue and/or achieve personal and professional goals you have set for yourself? NSU resources used?

We are now in the process of starting up a new Vision Science laboratory here with NSUCO. My research has been continuously supported by various extramural research funding bodies. The laboratory has also been funded by intramural university grants – including President’s Faculty Research & Development Grant (PFRDG, 2022) and Health Professions Research Grants (HPD, 2022 & 2023). All those funding supports the establishment of our brand-new laboratory. The pediatric and binocular vision specialist eye clinic in our college kindly helps patient recruitment for our research studies and clinical trials.

 

What advice do you have for other grant seekers at NSU?

I have been a regular grant reviewer for several major funding organizations and have served as a handling editor for many ophthalmology and neuroscience journals. In my experience, a grant proposal should ask an important and original research question and have utility. As a reviewer, I would expect to see some convincing pilot data to assess if the experiment is feasible. Also, a history of publications in reputable journals is of course very important too. Overall, keep trying because over time proposals and writing skills will improve.

 

What is the next grant proposal or project on your agenda?

To date, we have found our treatment to be substantially more effective than traditional occlusion treatment regimens. I hope to develop new techniques for treating various types of amblyopia while continuing with my research on video games as a treatment for this condition. The grants awarded will last for two years, at which time we will seek further funding to support our amblyopia research.