Neuroscientist discusses how optometric vision therapy helped her to develop stereovision

In Scientific American (8/4/2009), Mind Matters editor Jonah Lehrer interviewed neuroscientist Sue Barry, "the author of the newly released book, Fixing My Gaze, which tells the story of how Barry, at the age of 48, finally learned to see in 3-D." Barry, who had "been cross-eyed since early infancy," had undergone "three childhood surgeries" that "made [her] eyes look normal." Only in college did she realize that she was unable to "see in 3-D." In her late forties, Barry "consulted a developmental optometrist who prescribed...a program of optometric vision therapy designed to stabilize [her] gaze," while providing her "with the feedback" she "needed to know where in space each eye was looking. With this feedback," she "learned to aim the two eyes at the same location in space at the same time," thus being able "to see in 3D. Further therapy taught" her "how to integrate" the "new 3D views with" her "former ways of judging depth and distance." As a result of vision therapy, "these changes became automatic," and Barry no longer suffers from stereoblindness.