Can I correct my lazy eye at an older age, say 24 ? I know our brain does retain its plasticity.

Amblyopia, ("Lazy eye") is indeed a central (i.e. brain) neurological problem. So it is certainly logical to wonder if it might be overcome even later in life than what was once thought possible. The problem, though, appears to be the degree to which amblyopia is a developmental problem, not so much a late, traumatic defect such as one caused by a stroke.

One way to think about it is to consider visual perception/interpretation as a developmental, learned skill which then is gradually "hard-wired" into place. You can think of vision as being not a passive activity, but akin to learning a language: If you have not grown up with it all around you, you will likely never learn as an adult how to speak it so well as to be mistaken for a native speaker. This doesn't mean you can never be fluent (i.e. 20/20), but that would take considerable effort to attain the level of proficiency (speaking a foreign language, seeing) to the degree you would want. Perhaps as neo-plasticity becomes better understood, both will become more accessible to late change.

_Written by J. Trevor Woodhams, M.D. - Chief of Surgery, Woodhams Eye Clinic