Clinical psychophysics and basic aspects of human color vision; binocular vision; assessment of visual function
Professor Portnoy’s work centers on assessment of vision function in children with cortical visual impairment. The Special Visual Assessment Clinic (SVAC) at UC Berkeley treats a large number of children with cortical visual impairment. Research is currently underway to determine with greater accuracy the remaining vision function in these often non-verbal children by using a newly developed technique for recording the Visual Evoked Potential. BCSDP trainees involved in this research would learn visual evoked potentials (VEP) in all its forms and would also learn clinical assessment of children with multiple handicaps.
A second research area involves a current NEI longitudinal study assessing vision function in a large population of elderly who live in Marin County, CA. The research goal is to determine the extent to which simple tests of vision function can predict the loss of high contrast visual acuity within 5 years. The project also evaluates mechanisms of loss of reading ability with age, even in those whose visual acuity remains normal. Berkeley K12 trainees would become familiar with issues of aging and vision, the impact of cognition on vision assessment, eye movement recordings, and epidemiological and biostatistical issues related to longitudinal studies.
