PRESBYOPIA: PSYCHOPHYSICAL MEASURES IN AN ANIMAL MODEL

该项目的主要目的是提供心理物理措施， 有意识、警觉的恒河猴寿命期间的反射幅度 猴子，以确定是否与年龄有关的变化，自愿住宿 药理学和电刺激引起的平行变化， 麻醉动物 测量脑电诱发电位振幅的心理生理学方法 恒河猴将使用两种替代方案进行开发和标准化， 强迫选择辨别任务 负会引起反射 放置在眼睛前面的镜片。 自愿住宿将是 与局部应用 拟胆碱药物和电刺激Edinger-Westphal 在手术处女动物和单侧 虹膜切除术 非行为的措施是可用的，这一建议。 在整个生命周期中自愿住宿的变化 将被定义和相关的， 电诱导调节 视觉功能的下降也会 与生物老化的其他参数相关， 活动性、骨质疏松症、骨关节炎和脊柱骨赘。 对其他年龄相关疾病影响的初步调查， 例如白内障、黄斑变性，可能还有高眼压 和青光眼，对视觉功能的影响。 本研究的总体项目的基本假设是 （a）恒河猴可作为研究 人类进化机制和自然史研究 和老花眼的行为后果;（B）通过使用 非侵入性和侵入性的实验方法在这个模型上， 老视的病因学可以阐明;和（c）这些研究可以 最终导致某种手段来阻止或防止这种情况的发生， 最常见的眼疾

The primary aim of this project is to provide psychophysical measures of accommodative amplitude over the life-span of the conscious, alert rhesus monkey to determine if age-related changes in voluntary accommodation parallel changes induced by pharmacological and electrical stimuli in the anesthetized animal. Psychophysiological methods for measuring accommodative amplitude in the rhesus monkey will be developed and standardized using a two-alternative, forced-choice discrimination task. Accommodtion will be induced by minus lenses placed in front of the eye. Voluntary accommodation will be correlated with accommodation induced by topical application of cholinomimetic drugs and by electrical stimulation of the Edinger-Westphal nuclear complex in surgically virgin animals and in animals with unilateral iridectomy. The nonbehavioral measures are available to this proposal. Age-related changes in voluntary accommodation over the entire life span will be defined and correlated with the pharmacologically and electrically-induced accomodation. Decline in visual function also will be correlated with other parameters of biological aging such as joint mobility, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and spinal osteophytaxis. Preliminary investigations of the effects of other age-related disorders, such as cataracts, macular degeneration, and perhaps ocular hypertension and glaucoma, on visual function will be undertaken. The fundamental hypotheses of the overall project of which this research is a part include (a) that the rhesus monkey can serve as a model for study of the human accommodative mechanism and for the study of the natural history and behavioral consequences of presbyopia; (b) that through the use of non-invasive and invasive experimental approaches on this model, the etiology of presbyopia may be elucidated; and (c) that such studies may eventually lead to some means to forestall or prevent the onset of this most common ocular affliction.