Accommodation, pupilloconstriction and choroidal blood flow are all clinically important ocular functions. Both the nature of the visual stimuli that elicit each of these responses and the peripheral mechanisms by which each is produced have been the subject of investigation. Yet surprisingly little is known about the central neural circuits involved. The delineation of the anatomical pathways mediating accommodation, pupilloconstriction and choroidal blood flow and the possible sites of interaction between them would make it possible to test a variety of fundamental hypotheses concerning the respective roles of these three ocular functions in a variety of clinical pathologies. The long-term goal of this research program is to improve our understanding of the functional organization of accommodation pathways that control the ability to focus the eye in vertebrates and use this information to determine the role that the central nervous system may play in the development of myopia. Over the past decade, the chick has become an important model for the study of myopia. In the proposed experiments, chronic stimulation of accommodation """"""""centers"""""""" in the developing chick brain will be used to test directly the clinical """"""""near work"""""""" hypothesis that overaccommodation, or too much near vision, can produce myopia or nearsightedness. In addition, using pathway tracing techniques in conjunction with microstimulation, the brainstem circuits involved in accommodation will be determined. In summary, this set of experiments will anatomically and functionally define the brainstem circuitry controlling accommodation and determine its role in the causation of experimental myopia.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY004587-08
Application #
2159105
Study Section
Visual Sciences B Study Section (VISB)
Project Start
1983-07-01
Project End
1996-06-30
Budget Start
1994-07-01
Budget End
1995-06-30
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
State University New York Stony Brook
Department
Other Basic Sciences
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
804878247
City
Stony Brook
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
11794
Erichsen, Jonathan T; May, Paul J (2012) A perioculomotor nitridergic population in the macaque and cat. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 53:5751-61
Erichsen, Jonathan T; May, Paul J (2002) The pupillary and ciliary components of the cat Edinger-Westphal nucleus: a transsynaptic transport investigation. Vis Neurosci 19:15-29
Peshori, K R; Erichsen, J T; Collins 3rd, W F (1995) Differences in the connectivity of rat pudendal motor nuclei as revealed by retrograde transneuronal transport of wheat germ agglutinin. J Comp Neurol 353:119-28
Erichsen, J T; Ciocchetti, A; Fontanesi, G et al. (1994) Neuroactive substances in the developing dorsomedial telencephalon of the pigeon (Columba livia): differential distribution and time course of maturation. J Comp Neurol 345:537-61
Sun, W; Erichsen, J T; May, P J (1994) NADPH-diaphorase reactivity in ciliary ganglion neurons: a comparison of distributions in the pigeon, cat, and monkey. Vis Neurosci 11:1027-31
Petry, H M; Erichsen, J T; Szel, A (1993) Immunocytochemical identification of photoreceptor populations in the tree shrew retina. Brain Res 616:344-50
Bagnoli, P; Fontanesi, G; Alesci, R et al. (1992) Distribution of neuropeptide Y, substance P, and choline acetyltransferase in the developing visual system of the pigeon and effects of unilateral retina removal. J Comp Neurol 318:392-414
Krebs, J R; Erichsen, J T; Bingman, V P (1991) The distribution of neurotransmitters and neurotransmitter-related enzymes in the dorsomedial telencephalon of the pigeon (Columba livia). J Comp Neurol 314:467-77
Collins 3rd, W F; Erichsen, J T; Rose, R D (1991) Pudendal motor and premotor neurons in the male rat: a WGA transneuronal study. J Comp Neurol 308:28-41
Cabot, J B; Mennone, A; Bogan, N et al. (1991) Retrograde, trans-synaptic and transneuronal transport of fragment C of tetanus toxin by sympathetic preganglionic neurons. Neuroscience 40:805-23

Showing the most recent 10 out of 16 publications