Human Ocular Surface Sensory Processing

人眼表面感觉处理

• 批准号: 183965-2013
• 负责人: Simpson, Trefford
• 金额: $ 2.11万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=631144
• 关键词: Human; Ocular; Surface; Sensory; Processing

Human Ocular Surface Sensory Processing: The surface of the human 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, 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 allowing us to to probe the function of those specific types of neural channels.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 and I will tie the words used to describe sensations to the stimulation itself.These sensory processing maps of how the surface responds to different kinds of stimuli will be compared to new measures of the anatomy of the eye's surface (obtained particularly using a confocal microscopy and ocular coherence tomography). In addition we will begin to determine how processing develops in infants, it it changes in the aged and whether it differs in males and females.Finally, we will continue 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 provide more effective tools for those trying to treat people suffering with uncomfortable and painful eyes.

人眼表面感觉处理：人眼表面是身体上最敏感的地方之一，但对人类的这种敏感性知之甚少。这个提议是为了继续进行一系列的实验来检验这一点，用一种独特的装置将微量的空气和二氧化碳的混合物吹到眼睛上。这个装置使我们能够测量人类对眼睛表面的压力（瘙痒感）、化学物质（灼烧或刺痛）和冷刺激的反应，从而使我们能够探测这些特定类型的神经通道的功能。该提案是进行一系列的实验来描述整个暴露和隐藏（在眼皮下）的眼睛表面的灵敏度，以确定什么是可以被检测到的，以及什么是可以感觉到不同的（检测和区分阈值）。此外，眼表对更明显的刺激（超阈值）的反应也将被检查，我将把用来描述感觉的词与刺激本身联系起来。这些表面如何对不同种类的刺激作出反应的感觉处理图将与眼睛表面解剖的新测量结果（特别是通过共聚焦显微镜和眼相干断层扫描获得）进行比较。此外，我们将开始确定处理过程在婴儿中是如何发展的，它在老年人中是否发生变化，以及它在男性和女性中是否有所不同。最后，我们将继续研究当施加疼痛刺激时，眼睛的其他结构（例如血管）发生了什么变化，以便了解眼睛表面对疼痛和无害刺激作出反应的回路。这项研究的长期目标是了解我们如何在眼睛表面感知事物，开发出更好的测量这种感知的方法，这样，最终，我们将能够为那些试图治疗眼睛不舒服和疼痛的人提供更有效的工具。