Bernhard Sabel (1957,

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

) is a German

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

who heads the Institute of Medical Psychology at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. Sabel investigates treatment options for

visual impairment Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

s through the activation and rehabilitation of residual vision. His work has appeared in over 200 publication.

Research interests

Sabel's basic and clinical research work focuses on brain plasticity and vision restoration. Based on this work with animal models of vision loss and his clinical work, he discovered that low vision and blindness must not be viewed as irreversible, but that it can be improved or restored to some extent, even long after the damage has occurred. The underlying theory and mechanisms of vision restoration were spelled out by the “hypothesis of residual vision activation”. It states that in patients with visual impairments, residual vision can be activated again by means of vision training exercises or non-invasive brain current stimulation. By reactivating previously hypometabolic, inactive (“silent”)

neuron A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. N ...

s, visual function can thus recover, improving not only vision test results but also subjective vision and quality of life. Sabel showed that vision restoration is independent of the person's age, sex, and duration of the damage, but that it depends primarily on the degree of how much residual vision the patients still have. Most recently, he discovered that the

mental stress In psychology, stress is a feeling of emotional strain and pressure. Stress is a type of psychological pain. Small amounts of stress may be beneficial, as it can improve athletic performance, motivation and reaction to the environment. Excess ...

has a negative influence on vision restoration while

relaxation technique A relaxation technique (also known as relaxation training) is any method, process, procedure, or activity that helps a person to relax; to attain a state of increased calmness; or otherwise reduce levels of pain, anxiety, stress or anger. Relaxa ...

s (such as

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

) improve outcome.

Publications

Sabel's work has been published in ''Science'', ''

Nature Medicine ''Nature Medicine'' is a monthly Peer review, peer-reviewed medical journal published by Nature Portfolio covering all aspects of medicine. It was established in 1995. The journal seeks to publish research papers that "demonstrate novel insight int ...

'', ''Archives of Neurology'', ''Neurology'', and ''Neuroimage''.. Sabel's research work on vision loss and vision restoration also inspired the thriller novel trilogy authored by . Sabel has published over 240 science publications since 1979 in international SCI journals, 10 books, and over 40 book-chapters related to the topic of brain plasticity and vision restoration following

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

optic neuropathy Optic neuropathy is damage to the optic nerve from any cause. The optic nerve is a bundle of millions of fibers in the retina that sends visual signals to the brain. Damage and death of these nerve cells, or neurons, leads to characteristic featu ...

and

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. Sabel has given over 500 lectures at national and international conferences. Since 1997 Sabel has been the Editor-in-Chief of the SCI journal ''Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.'' He is the author of 10 books, including: * Stein, D.G. and Sabel, B.A. (Eds.) (1988). Pharmacological Approaches to the Treatment of Brain and Spinal Cord Injury: New York, Plenum Press. * Freund, H.-J., Sabel, B.A. and Witte, O. (Eds.) (1997). Brain Plasticity: Lippincott/Raven Press. * Charness, N., Park, D.C. and Sabel, B.A. (Eds.) (2001). Communication, Technology and Aging: Springer Publishing Corporation. * Sabel, B. (2016) Restoring Low Vision, Monograph, 278 pages (German Translation: “Wieder sehen”, 2018), both published by AMAZON.

Selected publications

* Kasten, E., Wüst, S., Behrens-Baumann, W. and Sabel, B.A. (1998). Computer-based training for the treatment of partial blindness. Nature medicine 4: 1083–1087. * Sabel, B.A., Engelmann, R. and Humphrey, M.M. (1997). In vivo confocal neuroimaging of CNS neurons (ICON). Nature medicine 3: 244–247. * Sabel, B.A., Fedorov, A., Henrich-Noack, P. and Gall, C. (2011). Vision restoration after brain damage: The “Residual Vision Activation Theory”. Progress in Brain Research 192: 199–262. * Bola, M., Gall, C., Moewes, C., Fedorov, A., Hinrichs, H., Sabel, B.A. (2014). Brain functional connectivity network breakdown and restoration in blindness. Neurology 83 (6): 542-551 * Gall, C., Schmidt, S., Schittkowski, M.P., Antal, A., Ambrus, G.G., Paulus, W., Dannhauer, M., Michalik, R., Mante, A., Bola, M., Lux, A., Kropf, S., Brandt, S.A., Sabel, B.A. (2016). Alternating current stimulation for vision restoration after optic nerve damage: a randomized clinical trial. PLoS One 11: e0156134. * Sabel, B.A., Wang, J., Cárdenas-Morales, L., Faiq, M., Heim, C. (2018). Mental stress as consequence and cause of vision loss: the dawn of psychosomatic ophthalmology for preventive and personalized medicine. EPMA Journal 9: 133–160. * Sabel, B.A., Flammer, J, and Merabet, L.B. (2018) Residual vision activation and the brain-eye-vascular triad: dysregulation, plasticity and restoration in low vision and blindness – a review. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 36: 767-791

References

External links

Publications by Bernhard Sabel at PubMed

Sabel on ResearchGate

Portrait page in the research portal Saxony-Anhalt

Clinical services by Sabel at SAVIR Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabel, Bernhard Living people 1957 births German psychologists University of Trier alumni Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf alumni Clark University alumni