Binocular vision; human development, ocular motility, strabismus, and amblyopia
Professor Schor's NIH grant (Visual Development of Sensory and Motor Functions) investigates oculomotor adaptation of the accommodation and vergence systems to age-related biomechanical changes of the accommodative system that produce presbyopia. Projects involve testing models of dynamic accommodation and vergence control with psychophysical experiments in a normal population ranging in age from 15 to 40 years (see Vision Research, 2005 45/10, 1237-1254). The goal is to determine how the accommodative system maintains youthful dynamics as the amplitude of accommodation declines with age. We have shown that the accommodative system has the capacity to compensate for mechanical changes, and that when prosthetic accommodating interocular lenses (AIOL) are implanted in the eye to replace an old sclerosed lens, the brain has the capacity to adjust the neural control of accommodation to optimize the performance of the implant. This is important to the developers of these AIOLs, who need to know the tolerances for the visco-elastic properties of the implant and whether the eye can make neural adjustments. Our study team will be involved in clinical trials to demonstrate how patients adjust to the AIO. These studies will provide excellent opportunities for BCSDP trainees to develop clinical trial skills needed to test the safety and efficacy of a novel approach to enhance vision. It is also possible that BCSDP trainees may be involved in the pre-clinical phases of testing the AIOL implants.
