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An abnormal visual experience early in life, caused by strabismus, unequal refractive power of the eyes, or eye occlusion, is a major cause of amblyopia (lazy eye), a highly diffused neurodevelopmental disorder severely affecting visual acuity and stereopsis abilities. Current treatments for amblyopia, based on a penalization of the fellow eye, are only effective when applied during the juvenile critical period of primary visual cortex plasticity, resulting mostly ineffective at older ages. Here, we developed a new paradigm of operant visual perceptual learning performed under conditions of conventional (binocular) vision in adult amblyopic rats. We report that visual perceptual learning induced a marked and long-lasting recovery of visual acuity, visual depth perception abilities and binocular matching of orientation preference, and we provide a link between the last two parameters., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Consorti, Sansevero, Torelli, Di Marco, Berardi and Sale.)

Apart from personal- and societal-level factors, we propose that collectivism also plays a role in the spread of COVID-19. Results from six studies using both secondary datasets and laboratory experiments conducted in two different countries demonstrate that collectivism is: (a) negatively associated with the spread of COVID-19 and (b) positively associated with the self-importance/expectation to engage in widely publicized behaviors to prevent the spread of the disease, as well as with greater likelihood to vaccinate against COVID-19. Finally, the higher likelihood of people high (vs. low) in collectivism to engage in preventive behaviors is driven by their belief that others consider it important to engage in such behaviors. The effects were robust and emerged by measuring collectivism both at the country level and at the individual level. We conclude by proposing features of public health campaigns likely to elicit compliance behavior to control the spread of COVID-19., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)