2015_Annual_Report

29 Dr. Backus (left) and Mr. Williams after emerging from five days of light deprivation in 2012. block out all light. Subjects will not be able to use objects that emit even the faintest light, including cellphones and electric tooth brushes. Participants will have meals prepared for them, as well as plenty of opportunities to listen to music, engage in discussion and activities as well as exercise to keep their spirits up. Dr. Backus and Mr. Morgan Williams, a research technician, both underwent five days of light deprivation in 2012 to test the feasibility of the study. While they encountered some challenges living in total darkness, they both found the experience to be far less daunting than anticipated. “We called ourselves ‘scotonauts,’ since ‘scoto’ is the Greek word for darkness,” Backus said. “In the dark some common tasks like eating and dialing phone numbers created some interesting challenges,” Williams said. “But the experience was surprisingly relaxing and not scary at all, not even with the hallucinations.” It turns out that putting oneself into total darkness can cause vivid hallucinations after a day or two—Dr. Backus saw landscapes, interior scenes and building facades in great detail. The hallucinations are a positive sign, according to Dr. Quinlan, because they may reflect enhanced excitability in networks of visual neurons. While the concept of living in the dark for 10 days may seem unusual, it isn’t without precedent. So-called “darkness retreat facilities” exist throughout Europe and some schools of Tibetan Buddhism practice “dark retreats” that can last for days, months or even years. Most importantly for the purposes of this study, visual deprivation has been shown to reactivate plasticity and promote the recovery from amblyopia in animal models including rodents and cats. The study also represents a unique clinical application for basic research and will provide an opportunity for close collaboration with the College’s Clinical Vision Research Center.