Spatial vision modeling, psychophysical methods and vision test design, corneal topography and contact lens design, source localization of evoked potentials, fMRI, amblyopia
Professor Klein's research includes the R01-EY04776-18 project "High spatial frequency feature acuity in human vision," which seeks to understand the mechanisms of spatial vision. He works in close collaboration with Dennis Levi to explore long-range interactions, the effects of noise, nonlinearities, and perceptual learning. They are especially interested in the underlying causes of visual degradation in amblyopia and other clinical disorders, and have developed a number of unique psychophysical methods for efficiently gathering data in clinical settings. A second project is R21-EY15825-01, "Identifying EP/MEG sources in strabismus and amblyopia," which is developing new VEP/MEG and fMRI methodologies for localizing the sources of brain responses in early visual areas. It has never before been possible to accurately distinguish between closely spaced sources as are found in V1 and V2. His new methods, based on multifocal (more than 200 patches across the visual field) as well as multi-sensors (275 for MEG and 128 for VEP) seem able to overcome previous obstacles for separate identification of the early visual areas. Once the new methods have been validated by comparison with fMRI/MRI they will be applied to the issues of suppression and distortion found in strabismus and amblyopia. In addition, professor Klein also conducts clinical research connected with the optics of the eye. In particular he seeks to improve the quality of contact lens fitting based on knowledge of extended corneal topography across the full cornea and the near scleral region. Knowledge of the extended region is especially important for the new silicon hydrogel contact lenses that are worn for extended durations. BCSDP trainees would become involved in all areas of research in the Klein laboratory.
