Tuesday October 8,

UK scientists are using a new technique of "lighting up the brain" to investigate eye disease, aiming to better understand common eye problems and improve treatment for patients.

While brain scanning, or Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI), is routinely used to study brain function and to detect abnormalities such as tumours, eye specialists at the University of Leicester are using a new, more advanced method, called functional Magnetic Resonance Imagining, to find links between eye disease and brain function.

According to Professor Irene Gottlob, head of ophthalmology at the university, researchers usually use the advanced scanning method to study normal brain function and detect neurological disorders. So far it has only been used in the investigation of a handful of eye diseases.

The technique records the changes in blood flow in the brain that accompany brain activity, allowing scientists to see which areas "light up", or become active, as people look at different pictures and patterns.

Prof Gottlob said a greater understanding of the link between eye problems and the brain would help patients who have a range of conditions.

"There are many common disorders of the visual system, where we don't understand how the brain has changed," she said.

"If people have missing parts of their peripheral vision (enlarged ‘blind spots’), for example, due to glaucoma, they are not aware of the missing information." She says that in these cases the brain "fills in" the missing information so the patient sees a complete picture.

The team will also study the eye movement disorder nystagmus where the eyes continually "wobble".

"Some patients report a continually moving world, whereas to others the world seems perfectly normal and stationary," said Prof Gottlob. The team will investigate how the brain and eye interact to cause the condition.

© HMG Worldwide Ltd 2002


     Listing # 8 Oct 2002