Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions

While sitting in the waiting room at the eye doctor, a book on the reading materials table caught my eye. It was titled "Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions." While waiting for my appointment, I glanced through the book and added it to my book list. Somewhat technical in the scientific language, it still provided a very interesting perspective on the continuum of vision and what can and cannot be done to improve the way people see.

Susan Barry was born cross-eyed. Through her childhood, she had various surgeries to correct the appearance of her eyes. With the corrections, she had 20/20 vision. While listening to a lecture in college biology, she came to realize that even though she had 20/20 vision she only saw the world in 2 dimensions. This is a condition referred to as "stereoblind." It explained why she had such a hard time focusing while reading, watching TV and driving. To her dismay, the medical paradigm at the time (and continuing as a myth today), was that people who were stereoblind would never see in 3D. The thought was humans start to see in 3D as infants, and if the right neurons weren't making connections during this "critical period," there was no hope for seeing in 3D later in life.

As a neurobiologist, Susan grew restless with the notion that nothing could be done about the way she sees the world. With her background, she believed it was possible to get the brain circuitry to re-connect and change her vision. As she conducted her research, she learned of an optometrist in the somewhat obscure field of vision therapy. Her optometrist worked with her on weekly basis over the course of a year with various vision exercises to train her brain to see in 3D. After a year, Susan describes her amazing experience of finally seeing something in 3D. She was leaving a therapy session, and the steering wheel of her car suddenly popped out at her. Her descriptions of how this changed every day life were amazing. She didn't have depth perception issues while driving, which alleviated much anxiety; her tennis game improved; she craved nature walks and art shows to appreciate the space between objects. She shares the stories of many others with similar experiences in this book.

"Fixing My Gaze" is an inspiring book that demonstrates as much as we know in science, there is still much to learn and explore.