Dyslexia refers to a reading acquisition disorder characterized by difficulty in reading and spelling words correctly. To fight against dyslexia, two French researchers, Albert Le Floch and Guy Ropars, vision specialists, have developed a strobe lamp that would reduce the disorder and facilitate reading. Lighting.

The difficulties appear from the start of learning to read (alphabetical stage). Subsequently, the dyslexic person struggles to memorize the visual form of words and to distinguish them (orthographic stage). She thus reverses letters, sometimes morphologically similar words, and struggles to understand the meaning of what she reads. Although the exact causes of dyslexia have not yet been identified, research to date suggests reasons of neurological and / or genetic origin.

An anatomical origin

Physicists Albert Le Floch and Guy Ropars from the University of Rennes recently issued a new hypothesis. In their study, published by the journal “The Royal Society” in 2017, they demonstrate that this cognitive disorder could be linked to a malformation of Maxwell’s spots. According to them, unlike non-dyslexic people who have one dominant eye, dyslexics have two dominant eyes. Scientists came to this conclusion by studying Maxwell’s spots, a tiny area of ​​the retina that is a receptor of light. Asymmetrical in non-dyslexic people, these spots would be identical in dyslexics.

This double dominance thus creates confusion in the brain which cannot process the simultaneous and contradictory information coming from each of the two eyes. This phenomenon generates mirror images and disrupts reading, in particular by creating confusion between symmetrical letters, such as b and d, p and q. This rivalry between the two eyes then leads to a disturbing mirror effect.

Dyslexia: the numbers

According to the French Federation of Dyslexics (FFDys), in France, nearly 6% of school children suffer from dyslexia. But the prevalence of dyslexia varies greatly between countries (between 2% to 12% of the population) and depends significantly on the local writing system. For example, there are many more dyslexics in the United States than in Italy, where each letter is pronounced identically.

The role of the dyslexia lamp is to emit pulsed and modulated light in order to create a fictitious dominant eye. By relying on the delay which exists between the primary image and the mirror image (of the order of 10 ms) sent by each of the two eyes, the two researchers succeeded in setting up a method which makes it possible to erase this mirror image that bothers dyslexics. The method thus allows the brain to process information as if it came from one dominant eye.

To obtain an optimal result and to adapt the light to its sight, the frequency and the pulsation of the light can be regulated using two modulator knobs.

Earnings

Particularly problematic during the phase of learning to read, dyslexia can become a real obstacle and a handicap in the child’s education. Difficulties in deciphering words, grasping the meaning of a text and writing correctly can have repercussions on children’s learning, motivation, confidence in their abilities and on their general well-being. Significant eye strain has also been observed in dyslexic children.

While people with dyslexia evoke letters that move and mix, the dyslexia lamp helps to reduce these effects: the symmetry disappears, the letters move less. The lamp will thus facilitate and accelerate learning, providing comfort and pleasure. Dyslexics who are already readers, children or adults, can also use this lamp, which allows you to read longer and without getting tired. Indeed, according to 90% of users, the light from the lamp offers greater reading comfort by making reading smoother, faster, with less effort. By getting less tired, children who are in the learning phase of reading also seem to concentrate longer, better read letters and understand the meaning of words. So many factors that would allow them to keep their motivation and progress faster. They also read with more attention and pleasure. Note that it is possible to ask your child’s teacher to bring the lamp to school to facilitate reading during lessons.

Despite the success with users, some dyslexia specialists seem suspicious of the effectiveness of this technology. The French Federation of Dyslexia, for its part, is cautious because of the unconventional methods used by the two researchers and the results still too recent to draw definitive conclusions.