Fixing My Gaze : A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions
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.
From the foreword by Oliver Sacks
""Fixing My Gaze" is a beautiful description and appreciation of
two very distinct ways of seeing... But it is also an exploration
of much more. Sue is at pains not only to present her story, in
clear and lucid, often poetic, language, but also, as a scientist,
to provide understanding and explanation. She is in a unique
position to do this, drawing on both her personal experience and
her background as a neurobiologist....Though Sue originally thought
her own case unique, she has since found a number of other people
with strabismus and related problems who have unexpectedly achieved
stereo vision through vision therapy. This is no easy
accomplishment. It may require not only optical corrections (proper
lenses or prisms, for example), but very intensive training and
learning--in effect, learning how to align the eyes and to fuse
their images, and unlearning the unconscious habit of suppressing
vision which has been occurring perhaps for decades. In this way,
vision therapy is directed at the whole person: it requires high
motivation and self-awareness, and enormous perseverance, practice
and determination, as does psychotherapy, for instance, or learning
to play the piano. But it is also highly rewarding, as Sue brings
out. And this ability to acquire new perceptual abilities later in
life has great implications for anyone interested in neuroscience
or rehabilitation, and, of course, for the millions of people who,
like Sue, have been strabismic since infancy.Sue's case, and many
others, suggest that if there are even small islands of function in
the visual cortex, there may be a fair chance of reactivating and
expanding them in later life, even after a lapse of decades, if
vision can be made optically possible. Cases like these may offer
new hope for those once considered incorrigibly stereo-blind.
"Fixing My Gaze" will offer inspiration for anyone in this
situation, but it is equally a very remarkable exploration of t
Temple Grandin, author of "Thinking in Pictures""
"Essential reading for people interested in the brain."
""Eric Kandel, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine;
author of "In Search of Memory""
""""Fixing My Gaze" is a magical book, at once poetic and
scientific, that holds out great hope for all of us. Here Susan
Barry recounts her discovery that through training she could
acquire, in adulthood, the three dimensional vision she lacked in
all her early years. Barry, an excellent brain scientist,
illustrates through her personal experiences and the fascinating
science of vision that the brain is a marvelously plastic organ
that can continue to change its wiring and thereby its function
throughout our adult life."
""""David H. Hubel, Winner of the Nobel Prize in
Physiology/Medicine; John Franklin Enders Professor of
Neurobiology, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School""
"""It had been widely thought that an adult, cross-eyed since
infancy, could never acquire stereovision, but to everyone's
surprise Barry succeeded. In "Fixing My Gaze," she describes how
wonderful it was to have, step-by-step, this new 3-D world revealed
to her. And as a neurobiologist she is able to discuss the science
as an expert, in simple language."
""""Brock and Fernette Eide, authors of "The Mislabeled
Child"""
""""Beautifully written, deeply informative, and profoundly
inspiring..."Fixing My Gaze "will appeal to anyone interested in
the beauty of the nervous system, and should be required reading
for every person involved with the education, behavior, and
development of children."
""""""Michael Chorost, author of "Rebuilt: How Becoming Part
Computer Made Me More Human""""
"""""Fascinating and moving....Barry shows us that with healthy
eyes and the simplest of tools, we can see the world in an entirely
new way. "Fixing My Gaze "made me wonder: What new things could any
of us see, if only someone told us it was possible?"
""""""""Dr. Leonard J. P
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