Visual functions across the lifespan

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Visual impairment is a highly feared disability. However, the eyes and visual system appear to be capable of both functional and structural adaptation to a variety of environmental influences. This means that there is the potential to favorably alter outcomes and thus prevent or reduce visual impairment. The long-term objective of this research is to understand the developmental processes of vision and the visual system and the extent to which these processes can be altered by visual experience or adaptation. To understand the normal developmental process one must be able to measure the visual functions in question. This is not always easy and some populations are more difficult to evaluate than others. One of my main goals therefore is to measure visual functions such as acuity and eye movements in populations that typically have been neglected, such as children and the elderly. It is essential that the normal variation with age be known in order that it may be distinguished from the case of disorder. We wish to know this so that when either intentional or inadvertent intervention interrupts the normal course of events we can predict with some confidence the outcome or possibly even alter it. A second goal is to study the effects of altered visual experience/adaptation on eye development and/or visual performance.