Visual functions across the lifespan

视力障碍是一种令人高度恐惧的残疾。然而，眼睛和视觉系统似乎能够对各种环境影响进行功能和结构上的适应。这意味着有可能有利地改变结果，从而防止或减少视力损害。这项研究的长期目标是了解视觉和视觉系统的发展过程，以及这些过程可以在多大程度上被视觉经验或适应所改变。要理解正常的发育过程，一个人必须能够测量有问题的视觉功能。这并不总是很容易，一些人群比其他人群更难评估。因此，我的主要目标之一是测量儿童和老年人等通常被忽视的人群的视觉功能，如敏锐度和眼球运动。了解随年龄的正常变化是至关重要的，这样才能将其与疾病区分开来。我们希望知道这一点，以便在有意或无意的干预扰乱事件的正常进程时，我们能够满怀信心地预测结果，甚至可能改变结果。第二个目标是研究改变的视觉体验/适应对眼睛发育和/或视觉表现的影响。

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.