This proposal requests funding to design an integrated, portable neurovisual assessment system with the following capabilities: 1) custom software with user-friendly script language to program independent and multiple, simultaneous visual stimuli to the left and right eye for non-engineers, 2) simultaneous eye movement and sensory neuro-electrical activity quantification from visual stimuli, and 3) data analysis algorithms to determine potential physiological measurements or biomarkers that are sensitive and specific in identifying neurological and visual deficits. This transformative project will enable basic and clinical research scientists to assess neuro-visual functions in normal and impaired populations. This system will be integrated into the PIs' undergraduate and graduate courses. It will enable about 200 students annually to train in imperative skills needed in the growing Biomedical Engineering field (e.g. collect and analyze physiological data). It will be used for tours to introduce over 350 4th to 12th grade students annually to Engineering and Mathematics. The first application of this project will be to evaluate biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
" during 2013 to 2014. To briefly review the topics in this proposal, the PI is studying how we learn to move our eyes. The core of this grant was to develop a new integrated system to measure vergence and accommodation simultaneously while dissecting the Maddox components of vergence. The attributes of the new instrumentation can study Visual Cues in isolation and in combination to understand the The contribution of disparity, blur, and proximal cues to generate vergence and accommodative responses from CIs before and after OBVAT is unknown and will be the focus of Aim 2. Hence, under natural viewing conditions you stimulate (dbp) via binocularly (disparity cue) viewing a target of high acuity (accommodative cue) that subtends a larger field at near than far i.e. looming target (proximal cue). To stimulate accommodative vergence only, you would view a target monocularly that is a high acuity target (Maltese cross) that does not change the degree of how much the image subtends in near or far space (scaled). To stimulate disparity vergence only, a haploscope that keeps targets at the same focal distance using a scaled DoG stimulus will be used. To stimulate proximal vergence only, monocular viewing of a looming DoG target will be used. This instrumentation is fully operational, is being replicated at our clinical collaborators research facility at Salus University and needs to be further tested. This became the basis of a successful NIH R01 grant funded at $1,250,000 direct costs from 2014 to 2019 to study the underlying mechanisms of vision therapy. Several basis science studies have been conducted in the past year. The human brain optimizes motor control strategy by using its memory and experience of previous motor control sequences. These have been established through learning. This research studies a specific aspect of the neural control of eye movement – namely, the binocular, stereoscopic visual tracking system. The PI is discovering how motor learning influences the performance of the oculomotor system for tracking the depth of objects in 3D. Just as in other motor tasks, e.g., learning a golf swing, motor memory is thought to be a crucial element for directing movement of the eyes during repetitive visual tracking tasks. When a person can learn a repeated 3D visual stimulus pattern, such as a baseball batter tracking approaching pitches, his/ her eye movements become more efficient because the eyes track the target with less delay and greater speed. The oculomotor system will be used because it incorporates many important neural control characteristics. It combines a number of different neural centers to achieve extraordinary motor performance in a task essential for good vision. Statistical analyses were successful in decomposing eye movements. The broader impacts of this study will lead to a better understanding of basic motor control in general and of oculomotor dysfunction in particular. This study would also impact how patients with oculomotor dysfunction are cared for. In addition, the proposal features an education program for a broad spectrum of students at the grade school, undergraduate and graduate levels to develop skills that can be applied to multiple areas of neuroscience. Students Supported in part by NSF MRI Grant from 2013 to 2014: Rajbir Jaswal: PhD candidate Biomedical Engineering Spring 2013 to present Henry Talasan: MS Biomedical Engineering Graduated Spring 2014 Chang Yaramothu: MS Biomedical Engineering Graduated Spring 2014, admitted to the BME PhD program starting Fall 2014 Nic Thibodeaux: Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering student also supported by NJIT Provost Research program from Fall 2012 to present. BME Undergraduate BME Design project. Graduated BS in Biomedical Engineering continuing with a PhD in BME at Columbia University Stephen Lestrange: Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering student Summer 2013 to present. BME Undergraduate BME Design project. Graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering and staying for an MS in VNEL. Nils Warfving: BME Undergraduate BME Design project. Graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering. Attained a position in industry. Amisha Desai: BME Undergraduate BME Design project. Graduated with a BS in Biomedical. Pursing an OD in Optometry. Hassan Muhammed: BME Undergraduate participated in the BME 788 oculomotor course. Pursuing a PhD in BME. Collaborations Supported by NSF MRI Grant: Nancy Chaviolli, PhD Psychology, Silvana Costa, PhD Psychology Lauren Wood PhD Psychology – Project using eye movement to quantify visual processing speed in those with Multiple Sclerosis. Project with Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation Mitchell Scheiman, OD Optometry – Project using eye movement to study children with binocular dysfunction. Project with Salus University College of Optometry Bharat Biswal, PhD and Steve Hanson, PhD – Project to study functional imaging of eye movements. Project with Rutgers University Newark.
