ITHACA, NY (607NewsNow) — Most of us think about our eyes like we do any other part of our body, we want them to function normally and be free of disease.

When we think of eye doctors, we imagine someone who will check for problems with the health of the eyes and prescribe lenses to refocus light so that we can see clearly. We don’t typically think about the relationship between the eyes and the brain or how the eyes work as a team.

Sight is how our eyes receive and focus light from the outside world and deliver it as information
to the brain. Vision includes not just sight, but also all of the cognitive processing we do with the
signals we receive such as perceiving space, depth and position, turning characters on a page
into words and ideas, and transforming visual information into complex thoughts.

Sight is something that happens to us, but vision is something that we do! Since vision is an
active process, people can be good or bad at doing vision and we can have problems with
vision even if we have 20-20 sight. Because vision happens in the brain and not the eyes, brain
injuries like concussions and strokes often manifest with visual symptoms including light
sensitivity, difficulty with depth perception, poor balance, problems with reading fluency, and any
number of cognitive visual impairments.

When we think about not just what our eyes do, but all of the things we do with the information
they provide, it’s amazing how many health problems could actually be vision problems. Some
binocular vision problems are so common that they’re often undiagnosed. One in five people
has a convergence insufficiency – difficulty with how the eyes work together at close distances in
order to read or catch a ball. Adults with convergence insufficiency experience strain and
fatigue with prolonged screen use and children with convergence insufficiency often suffer from
reading delays, clumsiness and inattention. These children can sometimes be diagnosed as
having ADHD or learning delays when the issue is primarily visual.

Deficits in the way our eyes work together as a team can cause problems with balance, motion
sickness, dizziness, headaches, difficulty adapting to corrective lenses, brain fog, and many
other seemingly unrelated problems. At Whole Picture Health & Vision, we are experts in eye
health, neurology and binocular vision. Call us at 607-277-4749 or visit wholepictureithaca.com
to schedule an appointment and we won’t just provide you with a great eye exam, we’ll examine
your unique situation and offer tailored solutions.