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| Some papers related to the Prakash effort: |
- Held, R., Ostrovsky, Y., deGelder, B., Gandhi, T., Ganesh, S., Mathur, U. and Sinha, P. (2011). Newly sighted cannot match seen with felt. Nature Neuroscience, 14, 551-553.
- Ostrovsky, Y., Meyers, E., Ganesh, S., Mathur, U., and Sinha, P. (2009) Parsing images via dynamic cues. Psychological Science. 20, 1484-1491
- Bouvrie, J. V. and Sinha, P. (2007). Object concept learning: Observations in congenitally blind children and a computational model. Neurocomputing. Vol. 70, 2218-2233.
- Ostrovsky, Y., Andalman, A. and Sinha, P. (2006). Vision following extended congenital blindness. Psychological Science. Vol. 17, No. 12, 1009-1014.
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First steps
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As a precursor to establishing the Prakash Center, we have been engaged in Project Prakash over the past six years. Founded by Prof. Pawan Sinha of MIT, this is an initiative wherein a team of scientists from MIT has collaborated with the Shroff Charity Eye Hospital in India and launched outreach programs for villages in states adjoining Delhi. This work has effectively demonstrated the profound societal and scientific benefits that can flow from the Prakash effort. We have so far screened over 28,000 children and treated over 1800 of them for conditions ranging from severe refractive errors to profound blindness.
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It has been tremendously gratifying to see the dramatic changes that treatment has brought about in the lives of these children. Simultaneously, the scientific data gathered have begun challenging some long-held dogmas in neuroscience about learning and brain plasticity. This work has been highlighted in several scientific and popular publications including Nature and TIME magazine. Our work has also been described in a TED talk available for viewing here.
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Our work on Project Prakash so far has also highlighted the key needs that have to be addressed as we move forward.
The need to expand
There are over a million children in India with blindness or severe visual impairment. To reach and treat them, we need to launch an ambitious effort. Given the stunningly high childhood mortality rates among the blind, this is, in a very real sense, a race against time. We need to be able to identify and treat not tens, but thousands of children each year.
The need to educate
For children to benefit maximally from treatment, they need to be able to learn to use their new sense of sight. Most of them have never been enrolled in any schools. We need to provide the rudiments of visual and scholastic training to expedite their entrance into the mainstream educational system and society at large. Furthermore, we need to educate the educators for special needs students, such as those with new sight.
The need to integrate
To derive the greatest benefits from the natural synergies that exist between treatment, education and research, we need to adopt an integrated approach. This enables:
- A clear path from treatment to mainstreaming
- Real-world relevance of scientific research
- Translation of research to clinical and educational practice
- Extended treatments, follow-ups and outcome analyses
No such integrated facilities currently exist in India or, indeed, anywhere else in the developing world.
The Prakash Center for Children seeks to address these needs. |
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