The endogenous modulation of visual plasticity in human adults

Abstract

The adult human visual system can exhibit a degree of neuroplastic change under the right conditions which has implications for future treatments to recover vision loss that have occurred in infancy. The exogenous factors that promote neuroplastic change have been the focus of human psychophysical, electrophysiological and neuroimaging research over the last decade. What has not been considered is the importance of endogenous factors. In this study we modulate the neural oscillations that determines the internal neural state to demonstrate that endogenous factors play a critical role in not only baseline contrast sensitivity but also the extent to which the adult visual system can undergo neuroplastic change in binocular balance.