A Gabor patch: a fuzzy, striped pattern designed to activate specific neurons in the brain.
What is a Gabor Patch?
A Gabor patch is a special visual pattern used by neuroscientists to study and stimulate the brain. It's essentially a striped pattern (a "sinusoidal grating") that fades into the background at the edges (a "Gaussian envelope"). While it may look simple, its specific structure is a perfect key designed to unlock the very first stage of vision processing in your brain.
Why is it the "Gold Standard"?
Your brain begins to process vision in an area called the primary visual cortex (V1). The neurons in V1, often called "simple cells," don't see complex objects like faces or trees. Instead, each cell is a tiny feature detector, programmed to fire only when it sees a line or an edge at a very specific angle and location.
The Gabor patch is scientifically recognized as the **optimal stimulus** for these V1 neurons. Its mathematical structure perfectly matches the receptive fields of these cells. In simple terms, a Gabor patch is the precise "language" that the foundational part of your brain's visual system understands.
How Does This Help Your Vision?
By presenting you with Gabor patches during training, Visionary isn't just showing you random patterns. We are directly and efficiently targeting and activating the fundamental building blocks of your vision at the neural level. This targeted stimulation makes the neurons in your visual cortex more efficient, improving their ability to process the blurred, "noisy" signal sent by a presbyopic eye. This is what allows your brain to learn to see better.
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Our training uses the same gold-standard stimuli that neuroscientists use in the lab to study the brain. This rigorous, evidence-based approach is what sets Visionary apart.
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