Scientists say they may have discovered the potential cause of dyslexia. Furthermore, the cause of the affliction is hidden in tiny cells in the human eye that could be treatable.
A new research by two scientists from the University of Rennes in France shows that dyslexia may be the cause of inability to spot clearly. After conducting a study with afflicted participants, the research team observed that most people with dyslexia have dominant spots in both their eyes.
The presence of dominant spots causes dyslexic people to see blurred images that lead to their confusion with letters and consequently with writing, spelling or reading.
Shape Of Spots In The Eye Linked To Dyslexia
To conduct the study, which has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Oct. 18, 2017, the researchers looked into cell arrangement in the eyes and it's effect on the brain. The team analyzed the eyes of 30 non-dyslexic people and 30 dyslexic people with the help of an instrument called a foveascope. Subsequently, they found differences in the shape of spots deep in the eye where blue, green and red cones are located. Incidentally, these cones are responsible for color.
For the non-dyslexics, the scientists observed a round spot with no blue cones deep within one eye, whereas in the other eye this spot was elliptical or oval in shape. Moreover, the round spot was the dominant one in comparison to the other eye.
Among the dyslexics, both the eyes seemed to have the round spot. This implies that neither of the eyes is dominant and hence this confuses the brain because both eyes relay a different image to it. According to Guy Ropars and Albert le Floch, the authors of the study, it could be this symmetry of the round spots in both the eyes that could be the cause of dyslexia-afflicted people not being able to spell or read clearly.
"The lack of asymmetry might be the biological and anatomical basis of reading and spelling disabilities," said the study's authors. "For dyslexic students their two eyes are equivalent and their brain has to successively rely on the two slightly different versions of a given visual scene," they added.
No Single Cause Behind Dyslexia
According to John Stein, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Oxford who is not involved with the study, though the research is really interesting because it has shown the importance of eye dominance, it has still detected no indication why the differences take place in some people's eyes. Moreover, he added that only one problem is not necessary to get dyslexia and there cannot be just one problem causing it.
