Post-Trauma Vision Syndrome (PTVS) After Concussion (Part 1)
Vision problems are common after a concussion and can remain for months, or even years, if left untreated. More than 50% of our brain is dedicated to vision and studies show that more than two-thirds of concussion patients experience some impairments related to vision. Post-trauma vision syndrome (PTVS) may affect your ability to read, focus, and maintain attention. It can also cause symptoms that are indirectly related to vision, such as dizziness and headaches. PTVS results from a constellation of long-term effects from trauma, including dysfunctional brain signaling and autonomic dysfunction. Most of these conditions will not resolve with vision therapy alone; it needs to be combined with other therapies to address your symptoms holistically. As vision therapy can and will improve your symptoms, it is just one part of the solution.
Different parts of your brain play different roles in the visual process. For example, when you look at your mobile phone your brain controls the muscles in the eyes that allow you to focus your gaze on a specific point. The image on your phone reaches special cells in your eyes called rods (cells responsible for your peripheral vision and night vision) and cones (cells responsible for your color vision and vision detail). In turn, these cells send this information through the optic nerve to the occipital lobe. The parietal lobe is also involved in the visual process and is responsible for depth perception and knowing where you are in space. The temporal lobe, which is associated with memory, allows you to recognize what you’re looking at from the raw visual information coming from your eyes. The eyes are also an important part of your balance system (also known as your vestibular system which is the “balance center” located in your inner ears); information from your peripheral vision travels to the brainstem, which is involved in spatial orientation. Spatial orientation includes information about your surroundings, where you are in the room, where objects are relative to you, and how you can move through the space.
There are four main causes of PTVS: dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), neurovascular coupling (NVC) disruption, pre-existing visual dysfunction, and mismatched signaling. These changes are often functional rather than structural and cannot be detected by medical imaging. Treating the root of the problem is paramount to successful treatment as treating vision deficits in a vacuum will not resolve post concussion symptoms. In a future post we will go into more detail about these four causes of PTVS. For now, please know that if you feel like you have PTVS, it can absolutely be treated!
To book online please visit: https://happybrainpt.embodiaapp.com/
Questions? Call 203 822 2098 or email annie@happybrainpt.com
