Common treatments for amblyopia are masking therapy and atropine suppression therapy. However, they are not effective in all cases of amblyopia. With the increasing research on perceptual studies in recent years, the clinical significance of perceptual learning in amblyopia treatment has received more and more attention. Perceptual learning may become a new approach for effective treatment of amblyopia. In this paper, we review the progress of research on perceptual learning in amblyopia treatment.1. Definition and mechanism of perceptual learning Perceptual learning refers to the circle of improving the ability of a subject to perform certain perceptual tasks through training. It is an important research component in the field of perception and involves the intersection of cognitive psychology, psychophysics, neurophysiology, and other disciplines. In visual perceptual learning, this task is often referred to as a discrimination task and consists of recognizing small differences in simple visual attributes such as location, orientation, texture, or shape closure. The mechanisms of perceptual learning are still not well understood. Recent research on perceptual learning has provided us with some insight into the mechanisms. Experiments designed based on the structure of the perceptual learning model (perceptualtemphttc model) suggest that perceptual learning involves the process of better removal of noise (other signals that are not relevant or interfering with the visual cognitive task) {u. Lirw et al. Af showed that repeated training can be effective in improving visual behavioral abilities. This is mainly due to the increased efficiency of the subjects in utilizing the relevant stimulus information. Many experimental observational and computational models have also identified functional neurological changes associated with perceptual learning. 2, the role of perceptual learning in amblyopia A large number of clinical studies have shown that masking therapy is the main and most effective method in the treatment of amblyopia, but this method is not effective or even ineffective in the treatment of some children 01161; atropine suppression therapy, although it is better tolerated and may work better than conventional masking therapy, its effectiveness in the treatment of amblyopia in children over 10 years of age is not yet certain blade. There are no other definitive and effective treatments available for the above-mentioned ineffective children or adults with amblyopia. In 1996, kvi et al. first applied perceptual learning to adults with amblyopia and found that visual acuity could still be improved with training in adults with amblyopia. Since then, attention has been paid to the role of perceptual learning in the treatment of amblyopia, and gradually studies have begun to investigate its use in children with amblyopia, finding that it is equally effective in children with amblyopia. These findings suggest that perceptual learning may become a new approach to effective amblyopia treatment in clinical practice. Unlike traditional amblyopia treatment methods, perceptual learning is an active and participatory process. In perceptual learning training, the researcher uses a visual stimulus generator or a computer to present images of visual stimuli with different characteristics, and the subject is required to complete a visual task of some difficulty. Therefore, perceptual learning may have better compliance in amblyopia treatment. The development of a new treatment method, perceptual learning, may change the status quo in amblyopia treatment and allow us to effectively treat children or adults with amblyopia that has been poorly treated with traditional methods. The mechanism of amblyopia perceptual learning is similar to that of visual stimulation, which is currently widely used in clinical practice, and amblyopia perceptual learning is also based on neurophysiology. The difference is that perceptual learning uses a psychophysical approach and special equipment to present visual stimuli for visual task training. Although there is a lot of research on perceptual learning, the exact mechanism of perceptual learning for amblyopia is not clear. Perceptual learning in amblyopic patients may be accomplished by learning to make better use of information in the amblyopic eye (which is usually suppressed), and the same mechanisms may exist in other common approaches to clinical amblyopia treatment. There are two possible mechanisms by which visual function is improved in amblyopic patients: first, by exposing inhibited neural connections: second, by learning to use visual information effectively by completing visual training tasks. The role of perceptual learning in improving visual function The role of perceptual learning in improving visual function In recent years, many studies have shown that perceptual learning can significantly improve visual function in both normal and amblyopic eyes. Amblyopia is a visual developmental disorder that can manifest itself in a variety of visual functions, including reduced visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and vernier visual acuity. Perceptual learning can be used to improve visual function in the following ways Improving Contrast Sensitivity Amblyopia is characterized by reduced contrast sensitivity in the mid- and high spatial frequency range. Sowden PI. et al. found that perceptual training with a sinusoidal raster of a certain contrast level significantly improved the contrast sensitivity of the subject. ZhouY et al. found that perceptual learning of refractive amblyopia with sine bars improved contrast sensitivity and visual acuity in amblyopic eyes with different spatial frequencies. The effect of improved visual acuity was maintained for 1 year after training in some of these subjects. These studies suggest that both normal and amblyopic individuals can achieve improvements in contrast sensitivity function with perceptual learning training. Improved orientation discrimination Orientation information is an important property of visual stimulus signals, and in perceptual learning studies orientationdiscrimination is usually expressed as the ability to discriminate the orientation difference of a sinusoidal bar grid. DosherBA et al. 1999 found that perceptual learning could improve orientation discrimination at different noise levels, and LaZL et al. 2005 also found that perceptual learning could improve this discrimination; they also found that the perceptual learning effect in the training eye could be transferred to the 31 training eye. Perceptual learning effects that improve position discrimination can be transferred to the 31 practice eye. The method used to determine position discrimination) ability in perceptual learning studies is similar to the method used to measure vernier visual acuity, which was used in the study by LiRW et al. in which subjects were asked to indicate the set of three vernier lines that had a position deviation. Unlike the vernier lines, different levels of noise were added to these lines. Their results showed that repetitive training could significantly improve position discrimination in normal subjects. They later performed the same training on amblyopic children and found that amblyopic children also showed significant improvements in position discrimination after perceptual learning.3. Application of perceptual learning to amblyopes of different ages In recent years, research on perceptual learning in amblyopia has been intensifying, and many studies have found significant improvements in visual ability in amblyopes after perceptual learning. In a larger sample study by PolatU et al, a total of 77 (9-55 years old) amblyopic and 16 normal vision subjects participated. They trained using a sinusoidal bar grid with a Gabor function variation in luminance, resulting in a 2-fold improvement in contrast sensitivity and letter recognition in amblyopes. Moreover, the improvement of visual acuity in the trained group was not significantly correlated with age. They concluded that this effect was not just a temporary adaptation effect but a long-term sustained change in visual cortex. They also suggest that we can improve visual function in amblyopic patients with an individualized treatment plan for amblyopia-specific functional deficits. Perceptual learning in children with amblyopia In a study of perceptual learning in children with amblyopia, it was found that perceptual learning can significantly improve their visual ability. liRW et al. showed that the training of amblyopic children (aged 7-10 years) with a repetitive position discrimination task can significantly improve position discrimination, and some subjects even showed an improvement in Snenen’s visual acuity after training. improvement in visual acuity (approximately 26%). They hypothesized that children under 6 years of age might show better results through perceptual learning and suggested that perceptual learning techniques might be a new approach for effective treatment of amblyopia. However, there is a lack of research on perceptual learning in children younger than 6 years of age. Such research would be beneficial for the clinical treatment of amblyopia in children. In a study of 11 adults with amblyopia, LeviDM et al. found that all subjects showed significant improvements in vernier visual acuity (Venderacui do) after perceptual learning training. The study found that all subjects showed significant improvement in vernier visual acuity (Venderacui do) after perceptual learning training. The learning effect was also transmitted to the contralateral eye in two of the refractive amblyopes. In two other subjects, the improvement in vernier visual acuity was even accompanied by the same degree of improvement in SneUen visual acuity. Later, in a study by ZhouY et al IE on adult refractive error amblyopia, they found that the improvement in contrast sensitivity after training was accompanied by an increase in visual acuity in the amblyopic eye. They suggested that the visual system of adult amblyopes may still retain a certain degree of plasticity. In summary, many studies in recent years suggest that perceptual learning can improve visual function. In particular, its application to amblyopia treatment has yielded some clinical results. These studies have led to a new understanding of the boundaries of the amblyopic sensitivity period. As research continues to progress. Perceptual learning may change the status quo in clinical amblyopia treatment, which is dominated by masking therapy, and make it possible to treat amblyopia by improving contrast sensitivity, orientation discrimination, position discrimination, and other visual functions in amblyopic patients. Perceptual learning may even become another conventional treatment for amblyopia or an important complement to masking therapy, allowing for better outcomes in children and adults with amblyopia for whom current treatments are not effective.