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A pair of French scientists have claimed to have found a physiological cause for dyslexia, and the cause of it lies in the human eye.
They noticed a tiny discrepancy in the eyes of people with dyslexia which may be to blame for confusing the brain. The cells in their eyes were arranged in matching patterns which leads to producing "mirror" images, the authors wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In people who don't have dyslexia, these cells are arranged asymmetrically, which allows the brain to create a single image from both eyes and avoid conflict between the two images from your eyes.
Dyslexic people are known to make so-called "mirror errors" in reading, which is why they often confuse the letters "b" and "d".
"Our observations lead us to believe that we indeed found a potential cause of dyslexia," study co-author Guy Ropars of the University of Rennes, told AFP (via
Medical Express).
In terms of a treatment, there was also the discovery of a delay of about 10 thousandths of a second between the primary image and the mirror image in the opposing hemispheres of the brain.
This allowed scientists to develop a method to erase the confusing mirror image that appears for people with dyslexia, by using an LED lamp.
Using this LED lamp that flashes at a speed invisible to the human eye, they were able to cancel out the mirror image.
While the tests were carried out on a small group and the results were very promising, further testing will need to be done to determine it's effectiveness for the wider population.
About one in ten people around the world have dyslexia, making the total around 700 million.
