Ocular surface sensory processing

眼睛表面感觉处理眼睛表面是身体上最敏感的部位之一，但人们对人类的这种敏感性知之甚少。这项提议是为了继续在人类身上进行一系列实验，用一种独特的装置将微量的空气和二氧化碳混合物吹到眼睛上。该设备使我们能够测量人类对压力(刺痛感)、化学物质(灼热或刺痛)和冷刺激眼表的反应。建议进行一系列实验，以表征整个暴露和隐藏的(眼皮下)眼睛表面的敏感度，以确定什么是刚刚能检测到的，以及什么是可以感觉到的不同(检测和辨别阈值)。此外，还将检查眼睛表面对更明显的刺激(阈值以上)的反应。这些表面如何对这些不同类型的刺激做出反应的地图将与眼睛表面的新解剖测量(特别是使用共焦显微镜获得)以及预先知道的眼睛生理情况进行比较。最后，我们将开始检查当施加疼痛刺激时眼睛的其他结构(例如血管)发生了什么，为了了解眼睛表面对疼痛和无害刺激做出反应的回路。这项研究的长期目标是了解我们如何感觉眼睛表面的东西，开发这种感觉的更好测量方法，以便最终我们能够开发出更好的治疗眼睛不适和疼痛的方法。

Ocular Surface Sensory ProcessingThe surface of the eye is one of the most sensitive places on the body and yet little is understood about this sensitivity in humans. This proposal is for the continuation of a series of experiments to examine this in humans, with a unique device that blows tiny amounts of a mixture of air and carbon dioxide onto the eye. This device enables us to measure the response in humans to pressure (a scratchy feeling), chemical (burning or stinging) and cold stimulation of the surface of the eye.The proposal is to perform a series of experiments to characterise the sensitivity of the whole exposed and hidden (under the lids) surface of the eye to determine what can just be detected, as well as what can be felt to be different (detection and discrimination thresholds). In addition, the response of the ocular surface with stimuli that are more noticeable (suprathreshold) will also be examined.These maps of how the surface responds to these different kinds of stimuli will be compared to new measures of the anatomy of the eye's surface (obtained particularly using a confocal microscope) as well as to what was known beforehand about the physiology of the eye.Finally, we will begin to examine what happens to the other structures of the eye (e.g., the blood vessels) when a painful stimulus is applied, in order to develop an understanding of the circuits on the eye's surface that respond to painful and innocuous stimuli.The long term goal of this research is to understand how we sense things at the surface of our eyes, develop better measurements of this sensing so that, eventually, we will be able to develop better treatments for uncomfortable and painful eyes.