Information for Interested Optometrists and
Eye Care Professionals

Why is it that some people are poor readers while the majority of the population read easily and naturally? Pioneering work done by the N2READING, Inc., and others has shown that Convergence Insufficiency and/or Intermittent Central Suppression (ICS) are among the root causes for poor reading skills.

Our Clinical Experience
Our experience has shown that using a pair of liquid-crystal-lens glasses and an electronic device that causes the lenses to alternately become opaque at a specific frequency for each patient, tends to reverse the ICS problem after several hours of wearing the glasses while reading. Generally, this involves the patient wearing this device for about an hour each day for a period of a month. Apparently, during this time, the brain somehow reorganizes itself such that ICS disappears.

Our Treatment Method
Our approach is to administer this training via the Internet. We have developed proprietary software that mimics the effect of the alternate eye occlusion technique that has been successfully utilized by us and others. We do this, not by alternately occluding the eyes, but by alternately occluding the images that appear on a computer screen. Our proprietary software accomplishes this by causing the screen images to alternate between red and blue at a specified frequency. The viewer is provided with a pair of red/blue-lens glasses that provide an alternate occlusion of the images by the eyes. The patient sees only the blue images in his central vision when viewed through the red lens. It appears to be black on a white background. Likewise, the red images are only visible through the blue lens and they also appear black on a white background. This causes the images to be alternately visible to the left and right eyes. In this manner we mimic the effect of alternately occluding the eyes.

How this works
We believe that the technique of alternately occluding central vision forces the eyes to equally share in the reading process. As to why a specific frequency appears to help one patient while a different frequency is appropriate for another, research has not yet determined. However, we have verified through research and experimentation that this is the case. It is our belief that, through repetitive training, the brain learns that equally and alternately sharing the text by the eyes facilitates stereo-vision and improves reading skills. It may be that this effect is, essentially, a fast-track approach toward "hard wiring" the brain for this task.

Our Results
The technique of alternate occlusion of central vision appears to help slow readers improve their reading skills. Research conducted by N2READING, Inc., with over a hundred patients is described elsewhere on this site and indicates that this training is effective for a majority of users of our vision training program. Patients who have been successfully trained during the past four years through the use of our program have not regressed to their former state and most have become avid readers. Their school grades reflect their improved reading capabilities.