Cortical Visual Impairment in the absence of ON pathway signals
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cortical Visual Impairment in the absence of ON pathway signals
IRAS ID
158971
Contact name
Dorothy Thompson
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is the most common reason for early severe visual impairment or blindness in children in the UK. There can be many causes of CVI, most commonly perinatal hypoxia, but also insults in pregnancy, prematurity, trauma, infection, genetic or metabolic disease. Irrespective of cause, CVI is defined as a bilateral loss of visual acuity (that is not caused by the eye itself), yet CVI can encompass a broad range of visual impairments. The patterns of visual loss in CVI have been rarely studied systematically.
The study aims at enabling better interpretation of the patterns of visual loss in patients with CVI. It does so by investigating the visual network of the ON pathway and the impact of its dysfunction on cortical vision. The associations between the patterns of visual loss and fixation instability in patients with ON-pathway dysfunction will explicitly be the focus of the research. Such phenotypes often appear in diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Congenital Stationary Night Blindness. Furthermore, these detailed visual phenotypes will be correlated with the genotype to better understand the protein interactions and markers involved in ON-pathway signalling that are associated with better visual outcome. In addition, another aim will be to develop a new toolkit of electrophysiological stimuli to probe and distinguish the different visual pathways and their application in a clinical setting.
Being able to measure and interpret altered function in patients with CVI and other neurological conditions is essential for provision of the most appropriate support and to monitor intervention in the future.REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/2136
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion