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Can Living In Total Darkness For 5 Days "Reset" the Visual System?

Posted by samzenpus on from the do-over dept.

the_newsbeagle writes: That's what one neuroscientist is aiming to find out. He wants to put patients with a type of amblyopia, the vision problem commonly called lazy eye, into the dark for 5 days. His hypothesis: When they emerge, their brains' visual cortices will be temporarily "plastic" and changeable, and may begin to process the visual signals from their bad eyes correctly. Before he could do this study, though, he had to do a test run to figure out logistics. So he himself lived in a pitch black room for 5 days. One finding: Eating ravioli in the dark is hard.

32 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by Visarga · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's supposed that if you can do it for 10 days, your visual cortex will start processing other input and add its extra processing power to your meditations. Here's a link to a presentation: http://hridaya-yoga.com/how-to...

    1. Re:This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That seems like a really bad idea for people who still need their visual cortex for vision. If you want to jack up the wiring in your brain, just abuse dangerous drugs. It'll save you a lot of time.

    2. Re:This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by viniciuscb · · Score: 3, Informative

      Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a guru of the Bon (shamanic) buddhist tradition describes in his book "Wonders of Natural Mind" his experiences in a traditional tibetan "dark retreat" of 49 days (among other things).

      By his account he said that after some days he started to experience mind-created visions and that he lost the notion of time. He said that the 49 days seemed to be, in the end, like twelve days. He also said that he had some training before the retreat, because people that does it without some instruction can be overwhelmed by the visions, which at some point seem to be very real.

    3. Re:This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by umafuckit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That seems like a really bad idea for people who still need their visual cortex for vision. If you want to jack up the wiring in your brain, just abuse dangerous drugs. It'll save you a lot of time.

      I don't know what you mean by "jack up the wiring" but mushrooms will probably get you there and they're not dangerous.

      --
      soylentnews.org
    4. Re:This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by swillden · · Score: 2

      Makes sense, actually. If your idle visual cortex starts doing other things (whether useful or not), it stands to reason that the result would be interpreted as a visual hallucination.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    5. Re: This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by karlandtanya · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It took about 5 minutes for me, but had to be *total* dakness. So dark I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or shut. This was in a lab where we were doin nuclear emission spectroscopy (just gas discharge tubes). Any outside light would pollute the results, so the lab was really dark until we turned on the juice.
      During that period I could see as clearly as i'm seeing this screen flowing sheets of glowing pastel paint sliding down a wall that wasn't there.
      Not true hallucinations of course--by definition if you know it's not real it's not a hallucination. Phosphenes I think they were called.

      Anyhow, very beautiful and unusual. I don't think my lab partners saw anything--at least they didn't say they did. Or they were afraid people would think they were nuts.

      Later i blacked out my dorm room & reproduced the effect. And learned it's really hard to produce absolute darkness. Tinfoil is *full* of tiny holes! And black paint is not as opaque as it seems.

      --
      "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
    6. Re: This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Funny

      Tinfoil is *full* of tiny holes!

      I wondered why the Lizard Overlords' thought waves were still getting through.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    7. Re:This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by dingleberrie · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know what you mean by "jack up the wiring" but mushrooms will probably get you there and they're not dangerous.

      And they grow in the dark!
      I'm sensing an opportunity for synergy here.

    8. Re:This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by RockDoctor · · Score: 2

      mushrooms will probably get you there and they're not dangerous.

      Some mushrooms are not dangerous (and are hallucinogenic). Others are dangerous (and hallucinogenic). And still others are dangerous (and are not hallucinogenic).

      Generalising, it is not safe to rely upon generalisations about the safety of mushrooms.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    9. Re:This is called Kaya Kalpa in yoga by RockDoctor · · Score: 3, Interesting

      By his account he said that after some days he started to experience mind-created visions and that he lost the notion of time. He said that the 49 days seemed to be, in the end, like twelve days.

      That is pretty standard for isolation. If you're out of the normal day-night cycle, most people tend to drift round to a longer-than-24 hours circadian rhythm. A forend of mine did a number of experiments on this in various cave systems in Yorkshire in the 1960s, where he'd have light from lanterns he controlled, and food / water dumps would be left in the cave at irregular intervals (to remove circadian prompting). His body clock went up to something in excess of 30 hours.

      Of course, since he had lanterns (OK, miner's light) to turn on, he wasn't experimenting on "resetting" his visual cortex, but on removing the circadian prompt. But relevant.

      Anyone who has been a caver and has been waiting for several hours for the rest of the party to come back (or catch up), will have turned the lamp off to save the battery. (Of course, the wise troglodyte carries spare lights. but you still keep your system-level redundancy.) And the colours come and the patterns happen. and you hear the water getting louder and you wonder about whether it's raining up top. Some people freak. Most people turn the light back onto the low power setting.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  2. Wait for the results. by Seor+Jojoba · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is it a story that someone has a hypothesis? Do the tests, publish your findings.

    1. Re:Wait for the results. by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      From reading the article it sounds like some got a hold of his recruitment email and decided it sounded interesting enough to write up an article, which might even help him recruit more individuals for the actual study.

      At least it's more interesting than most of the crap that gets posted online today such as top ten lists of celebrities who have pets that look like other celebrities or whatever Bennet Haselton is doing.

    2. Re:Wait for the results. by hey! · · Score: 2

      Well he *is* going to test the hypothesis. But he has to test the *procedure* as well on a smaller scale before he uses it on his research subjects.

      People underestimate how much of science is like this. Advancing science isn't just a matter of creating more theoretical knowledge; a lot of the time it's about advancing know-how.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  3. Re: not even a lil LED ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes that is why blind people are crazy.

  4. Where are his grad students? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> Eating ravioli in the dark is hard.

    Isn't this what grad students were invented for?

  5. Testing by Firethorn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think that it's that he's willing to use himself as a test subject before inflicting it on others, fairly rare today.

    Not that I suggest a heart surgeon do a transplant on himself or that a doctor inject himself with insulin if he's not diabetic...

    But living in complete darkness for ~5 days can have unexpected developments/difficulties, it's probably best to NOT inflict that on kids until you know what to look for.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
    1. Re:Testing by doconnor · · Score: 5, Informative

      Barry Marshall, who discovered ulcers where caused by a bacterial infection, tested it by drink a petri dish of the bacteria and got gastritis and then cured himself with antibiotics.

      Got the Nobel prize.

    2. Re:Testing by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 4, Informative

      There's a long history of doctors and scientists in medicine testing their ideas on themselves.

  6. Not a good idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

  7. Overkill by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why not just glue them a mask on their face?
    Way cheaper.

  8. Re:not even a lil LED ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... And what can you do? ...

    Edit Slashdot stories.

  9. Number 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How can you tell if you are done wiping?

    1. Re:Number 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Taste each wad of paper before dropping it into the toilet. Duh!!!

    2. Re: Number 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Fold paper in half; if it sticks together, keeping wiping.

    3. Re: Number 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fold paper in half; if it sticks together, keeping wiping.

      +1. This one knows his shit.

  10. Ravioli tastes better by Overzeetop · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, but eating the grad students in the dark is really no easier, and the ravioli tends to taste better.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:Ravioli tastes better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I've eaten a grad student in the dark. It wasn't that hard. I knew anatomy and she appreciated the effort.

    2. Re:Ravioli tastes better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      It wasn't that hard.

      You're doing it wrong.

  11. Re:Blindfold Anyone? by Etcetera · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why not use a blindfold for 5 days?

    Are these people stupid or just trying to make everything more difficult than it seems?

    A) Some light is likely to get in, and they would need to be in a mostly-dark room regardless to account for slip-ups. Even then, they wanted to get 100% darkness, not 99.5% darkness (by timeslice)
    B) Ever worn a sleep mask or eye pillow? Your eye does different things when it's covered or has pressure on it (and a lot of pressure would need to be applied here, most likely). Having your eye "free" to look around (but having no source of light in the room) is likely to be physiologically different than wearing a dark blindfold.

    --
    Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
  12. Re:Ravioli hypothesis... by pr0fessor · · Score: 2

    ravioli, marinara, blender, and drink it from a glass. should work for steak, potatoes, and gravy too.

  13. Re: Hypothesis: Patch the good eye by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fixes a decent percentage of the population, sure, but what about those for which the eyepatch fails?

    Get an eyepatch with a better elastic. There's no excuse for an eyepatch to fail.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. Re:Blindfold Anyone? by slew · · Score: 5, Interesting

    FWIW The most common treatment today for lazy eye (Amblyopia) is to simply patch (i.e., think pirate patch) your good eye and hope your brain will stop relying on your good eye and start learning how to see again through eye that the brain was ignoring (suppressing). So it is basically a type of blindfold for one eye.

    For children with lazy eye, the patch is generally worn for a few hours a day for 6 months to a year. The older you are, the less well patching works (presumably because your brain is less plastic in these regards).

    However, new research suggests that there might be a way to retrain your brain (without resorting to trying to "reboot" your brain) by a form of vision therapy that attempts to reinvigorate the part of your brain that uses both eyes to see, by forcing it to exercise.

    One researcher has been experimenting with having people play a special version of tetris where each eye gets part of the information and the brain has to integrate both views to successfully play the game. Initially each eye would get a version that would be easy to fuse (depending on the problem that caused the lazy eye, such as out-of-alignment/direction), as the treatment progressed, the versions would progress toward the normal viewing. Seems like they got reasonably good initial results which were better than patching

    Maybe not every problem needs to be solved by rebooting the system.