Dyslexia can be defined as a learning defect characterized by difficulty in reading. Approximately, 700 million people suffer from dyslexia.

A research team from the University of Rennes in France suggested a therapy for dyslexia, by looking at the eye. The scientists identified a physiological cause for this condition, which could lead to an effective treatment.

With dyslexic patients, the light receptor cells (rods and cones) were arranged in matching forms in the center of each eye. In non-dyslexic patients, the receptor cells do not match, leading to a single image. The matching cells confuse the brain, by forming a mirror image in the opposite hemisphere. A slight delay between the brain producing a primary image and the other hemisphere’s mirror image was noticed. Cones are meant for seeing colors including red, blue and green variants. In non-dyslexic patients, one eye had a round hole, dominant over the other eye, where the hole was uneven. But in dyslexic patients, both holes were round. Both eyes are non-dominant, giving rise to errors while reading. 

Professor Guy Ropars, the study co-author said, “The lack of asymmetry might be the biological and anatomical basis of reading and spelling disabilities; For dyslexic students their two eyes are equivalent and their brain has to successively rely on the two slightly different versions of a given visual scene.”