PEDIATRIC LOW VISION

该培训奖项的长期目标是为申请者做好准备。 在儿科低视力领域的研究生涯。进阶 在婴儿视力和人类电生理学领域的培训将 使申请人能够开发新的、更有效的诊断和 婴幼儿失明眼病的治疗方案。 理解婴儿期视力丧失和恢复的机制 需要了解人类发展的关键时期 不同的视觉功能和测量视觉功能的能力 在婴儿期和儿童期非常准确。该奖项将提供 接受过这些领域培训的申请人将补充他的 临床专业知识。它还将为申请者提供大量的 数据库，可用于未来的独立研究。人类 弱视将作为研究人类发育的模型系统 临界期和皮质可塑性。本课题的研究重点是 确定发生在婴儿和儿童中的视力丧失模式 弱视儿童，治疗前。这些数据将用于 检验弱视视觉系统总是 相当于早期的正常视觉系统 发展。第一个目标是验证新的视觉诱发电位 不同发育阶段的两种视功能的视觉诱发电位测量 序列--光栅锐度和游标锐度。第二个目标是 测量光栅视力和游标视力的发育顺序 使用目标1中开发的扫描VEP测量。第三个目标将 新的视觉诱发电位测量方法应用于首次诊断为 弱视。弱视患者的丢失模式将与 在不同发展阶段衡量的规范性价值。会吗？ 弱视会导致两种视觉功能的简单停顿吗？ 知道一个变量相对于正态分布的损失，就可以预测 对正常增长模式的了解在另一个变量上的损失？ 功能丧失的模式将与诊断年龄相关 和弱视的原因(斜视、屈光参差或两者兼而有之)。做 斜视和屈光参差影响不同的视觉功能 差异化？风险因素的组合是否更容易导致弱智？

The long-term goals of this training award are to prepare the applicant for a research career in the area of Pediatric Low Vision. Advanced training in the areas of infant vision and human electrophysiology will enable the applicant to develop new and more effective diagnosis and treatment regimes for infants with blinding eye disorders. Understanding the mechanisms of visual loss and recovery in infancy requires an understanding of human developmental critical periods for different visual functions and an ability to measure visual function accurately during early infancy and childhood. This award will provide the applicant with training in these areas that will supplement his clinical expertise. It will also provide the applicant with a large database that can be used in future, independent research. Human amblyopia will be used as a model system to study human developmental critical periods and cortical plasticity. The research is focused on determining the patterns of visual loss that occur in infants and children with amblyopia, prior to treatment. The data will be used to test the hypothesis that the amblyopic visual system is always equivalent to that of the normal visual system at an earlier stage of development. The first Aim will validate new Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) measures of two visual functions with differing developmental sequences -- grating acuity and vernier acuity. The second Aim will measure developmental sequences for grating acuity and vernier acuity using the sweep VEP measures developed in Aim 1. The third Aim will apply the new VEP measures in patients when first diagnosed with amblyopia. Loss patterns in the amblyopic patients will be compared to normative values measured at different developmental stages. Does amblyopia result in a simple arrest of each of the two visual functions? Knowing the loss relative to normals on one variable, can one predict the loss on the other variable from knowledge of normal growth patterns? The patterns of functional loss will be correlated with age of diagnosis and cause of the amblyopia (strabismus, anisometropia or both). Do strabismus and anisometropia affect different visual functions differentially? Is the combination of risk-factors more amblyogenic?