Changes in the visual cortex in glaucoma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Changes in the visual cortex in glaucoma and their role in visual recovery: an fMRI-based study.
IRAS ID
223125
Contact name
Melissa Wright
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cardiff University (Research, Innovation and Enterprise Services)
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative condition characterised by nerve cell death in the eye. It is traditionally thought that patients have corresponding ’holes’ in their vision, which is reflected in public awareness campaign images. However, patients instead experience blurry or missing features in their side vision, rather than holes, suggestive of ’filling in’. This may be linked to the finding that in glaucoma, cells in the visual system appear to gather light over a larger area than normal. We will investigate the parts of the visual pathway that contribute to this change, with a focus on the visual brain, to better understand the nature of glaucomatous vision loss.\n\nDuring the first study phase, the ability of cells in the visual pathway to gather light over a larger area will be confirmed in a group of glaucoma patients, with age-similar controls. Findings will be compared to structural and functional changes in the brain, found with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Session 1 will take place at the Cardiff University School of Optometry and Vision Sciences and will involve tests of eligibility and an experimental test of the ability to detect differently-sized spots of light (up to 2.5 hours). Session 2 involves measuring neural activity with fMRI at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (1-2 hours). \n\nA similar protocol will be run for healthy adult participants in a second phase, but glaucoma-like vision will be presented within the MRI scanner to attempt to simulate short-term neural changes. This will aid understanding of whether brain activity changes in phase one are due to reorganisation or cell loss. \n\nThe results of this study will aid understanding of visual field loss in glaucoma and may suggest the potential of supporting visual recovery via neural reorganisation. This study is being funded by Fight for Sight.
REC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
17/WA/0259
Date of REC Opinion
20 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion