Perimeter for visual field assessment in healthy elderly research participants

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Perimetry is the assessment of visual sensitivity in discrete local regions of the visual field, yielding a sensitivity contour map of all or part of the retina.  Modern perimetry allow assessment with stationary or with moving targets and includes specialized tests with flickering and with coloured stimuli. Short wave length automated perimetry (SWAP), which assesses the integrity of the blue-yellow system, is a particularly sensitive indicator of visual field change in a range of conditions, including changes related to aging.  This request is for the purchase of a Humphrey Field Analyzer, or equivalent instrument, to allow me to screen participants in studies of vision and aging.  The particular questions addressed by my research involve the capacity to pool information across extended regions of the visual field.  Therefore it is important to be able to independently assess the integrity of local retinal areas in order to be certain that any changes in global processing that appear to occur with age do not simply reflect regions of local reduced sensitivity.      As no such facility exists on or near the York campus, this equipment will greatly enhance my own research program and will provide a valuable resource for other vision scientists at York, especially those with a research interest in aging.  In viewing of the current rapid growth in the number of elderly Canadians, understanding which visual abilities remain intact and which show some decline in normal aging is critical.  This will allow us to create and maintain supportive environments for healthy aging, optimizing visual cues to reduce risks such as falls.