Barry, a neuroscientist at Mount Holyoke College, was born with her eyes crossed and literally couldn't see in all three dimensions. Barry underwent several surgeries as a child, but it wasn't until she was in college that she realized she wasn't seeing in 3-D. The medical profession has believed that the visual center of the brain can't rewire itself after a critical cutoff point in a child's development, but in her 40s, with the help of optometric vision therapy, Barry showed that previously neglected neurons could be nudged back into action. The author tells a poignant story of her gradual discovery of the shapes in flowers in a vase, snowflakes falling, even the folds in coats hanging on a peg. After Barry's story was written up in the
New Yorker by Oliver Sacks, she heard from many others who had successfully learned to correct their vision as adults, challenging accepted wisdom about the plasticity of the brain. Recommended for all readers who cheer stories with a triumph over seemingly insuperable odds. Photos, illus.
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Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
Do you have depth perception, that visual ability to judge what is closer and farther away?
If you are reading this review, the answer is yes. From the time of the Renaissance, artists have made use of cues for depth to endow their canvases with a sense of life: streets become narrower in the distance; subjects that are closer are also larger and overlap those that are behind; there is the slightest haze in the distance, a subtle indistinctness of form, a difference in shadow. These devices trick the mind into perceiving depth whether we have one eye or two.
There is a second, more vivid form of depth perception, however, which requires the use of two eyes. To experience it, try the following experiment: Hold your hand at a forty-five degree angle to your face about ten inches in front of your eyes and spread apart your fingers. Closing one eye at a time, view the hand first with one eye, then the other. You'll find that each view is different, that the fingers have different separations depending on which eye you use. Next, open both eyes and see how your perspective changes, how the fingers seem now to be separated by more air, how there is an increased sense of space. This two-eyed form of depth perception is called stereopsis. Those individuals who have a "crossed" or "wall-eye" (strabismus), rather than combining the two views into a three-dimensional percept, typically see one of the views while ignoring the other.
Dr. Susan Barry, a neuroscientist, and the author of FIXING MY GAZE: a Scientist's Journey in Seeing in Three Dimensions was one such individual. Her eye crossed when she was three months old. Three surgeries between ages two and seven cosmetically straightened her eyes, but-as is frequently the case-the surgeries did not restore the brain's ability to combine the information from the two eyes. Sue's doctors, basing their opinions on the science of the day, assured her that she would never develop stereopsis.
The story of "Stereo Sue" regaining her depth perception at age 50 and astonishing the medical community was first told in a 2006 article by Oliver Sacks in a New Yorker. FIXING MY GAZE, however, is far more than a fleshing out the Sacks article. The book is a touching and sometimes lyrical tale of perseverance in overcoming obstacles. It's an excellent resource on Optometric Vision Therapy, the treatment through which Sue regained her vision. It's a wonderful overview of the science and neuroscience underlying the perceived changes. Most importantly, it's the best book ever written about how subjective experience changes during the journey from one-eyed to two-eyed seeing.
The story is completely accessible to nonscientists, the more technical discussions appearing in over fifty pages of endnotes, including copious references. As for who will benefit from or enjoy the book, there are many possible audiences: 1) Those who like well written success stories that also increase their understanding of the world. 2) Those who have ever had strabismus (a condition in which an eye turns in toward the nose or out towards the ear)-whether or not the condition has been "corrected" surgically. 3) The parents of those with strabismus.
4) Those who feel their own vision makes life more difficult. 5) Those with an interest in psychology or the brain. 6) Those doctors, whether ophthalmologists, optometrists or pediatricians, who profess to care for patients with strabismus. And finally (7), those who have pondered the topic of human consciousness: Sue, a neuroscientist, knew practically everything there was to know about stereopsis, but her world and joy of seeing changed profoundly when she experienced stereopsis. To share the excitement and insights of that change, read this outstanding book.
