Susan R. Barry is a professor of neurobiology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mount Holyoke College. She speaks regularly to scientists, eye doctors, and educators on the topic of neuronal plasticity. She has been featured on NPR and in a New Yorker article by renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks entitled “Stereo Sue.” She and her husband have two grown children and live in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Although scientists and doctors believe that it is very difficult to cure conditions such as strabismus, amblyopia, myopia, hyperopia, and others, this is not true. Through visual therapy using visual exercises, these and other conditions can be treated at any age.
Dr. Susan Barry, interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, is famous for having acquired 3D vision as an adult and for sharing her experiences in her book, Fixing My Gaze.
Having had strabismus since childhood, Dr. Barry underwent three surgeries on her eye muscles to correct the strabismus as a child. After the surgeries, she had “20/20” vision, meaning she could see the letters on the Snellen chart from a distance of 6 meters. Everyone assumed this meant she had perfect vision. However, when she tried to read, the words seemed to move on the page.
It wasn’t until Dr. Barry underwent an optometric vision therapy program as an adult that she understood why the words seemed to move across the page when she was in elementary school. This happened because her eyes weren’t working together the way they needed to for reading.
Dr. Susan Barry had suffered from strabismus since childhood. But vision therapy proved that it was possible to reverse this condition. And it changed her life.
Dr. Susan Barry said: “The effect of this was that, when I looked into the distance, the images seemed to shake. I was driving and trying to read the road signs, but I couldn’t focus my eyes precisely on the letters. When my children were in a play and I was sitting at the back of the auditorium, I couldn’t see their faces clearly. There was this blurring. I drove as little as possible. I avoided eye contact with people when talking to them. And, most importantly, I stopped looking into the distance, because that’s where my vision was most unstable. I realized I needed to do something about it, and by then I already had a bit of presbyopia, so I thought it best to see an ophthalmologist and check if my eyeglass prescription was still correct. I consulted Dr. Steven Markow, whose optometry practice is across the street from Mount Holyoke College, where I work. He suggested I try visual therapy and said he would see if there was anyone in the area who offered it. He called me back about two days later and recommended that I see Dr. Theresa J. Ruggiero in Northampton. Just twenty minutes away.
When Dr. Ruggiero first mentioned visual therapy, I was very skeptical. My skepticism only grew when I walked into the therapy room. It looked like a kindergarten classroom. There were red and green mylar sheets taped to the glass door, sheets with large numbers taped to the four corners of the wall, balls with letters hanging from the ceiling, strings of beads, and a balance board. Nothing like a typical ophthalmologist’s office. On top of that, I would have to share my visual therapy session with a five-year-old girl. It seemed like something for kids. I thought: was I really going to spend my hard-earned money on this?
And yet, during that first session, when I was asked to look at the numbers posted in the four corners of the wall, I discovered that I really couldn’t look down and keep my gaze steady. My vision wavered when I looked at the numbers near the floor. Plus, the five-year-old girl managed to do the exercise much better! So, at that moment, I realized it was time to set aside my preconceived notions and just see what happened. And what happened was that I had to go back to the beginning. As you know, a normal baby learns to see with both eyes in the first six months of life, but I hadn’t. So, at age 48, I had to relearn what it was like to see as a six-month-old baby. I saw the vision therapist at Dr. Ruggiero’s office for 45 minutes, once a week, for about 12 months. She performed the procedures prescribed by Dr. Ruggiero. I did my vision therapy exercises for about 30 minutes every day, usually during breakfast. It’s very much like learning to play the piano.
In other words, if I never practiced, but just went to the sessions, my progress would be minimal. But the more I practiced, the more I improved. It’s also true that doing a little bit every day was very effective. So, I didn’t have to turn my life upside down to do visual therapy, but I did need to set aside a small part of my day to do the therapy regularly, and I did it practically every day. And I still do therapy on my own because I want to see how good I can get. I started seeing results very quickly. There were several important changes in my vision. The first and most important was the stabilization of my gaze; I could look into the distance without the image becoming blurry. Along with that came a much clearer and sharper view of the world. The edges and contours of objects became much more defined. The information my eyes received was no longer conflicting, but rather correlated, sending data to my brain. This effect occurred during the year I underwent visual therapy. Then I started seeing things in 3D. I had been doing visual therapy for about six weeks, and the first thing I saw in 3D was my car’s steering wheel floating in front of the dashboard. Stereoscopic vision emerged gradually. I had the powerful sensation of being immersed in a three-dimensional world I had never experienced before. Furthermore, after having this experience in real life, suddenly everything on TV seems more three-dimensional. When I look at a painting with perspective, I now see much more depth in it because I’ve had this experience with depth in real life. But there was another completely unexpected surprise. And that was the immense emotional euphoria I felt upon acquiring 3D vision. I’ve heard this repeatedly from other people as well. When I began to see in 3D, I felt waves of absolute, indescribable joy. I was completely ecstatic. I tried to keep it to myself, because if people started asking me about it, I wouldn’t stop talking. My husband and my children started to think I was crazy. It was an unbelievable feeling of joy. I had no idea it would have that kind of effect on me—and it still does.”