Sight is such a spontaneous activity that we are unaware of the complexity of the brain mechanisms it implies. For instance, we easily recognize objects, which appear to look always the same, without realizing that we observe them from ever-changing po…
Author: Medical News Today
New Approach To Determining Origins Of Eye Diseases
Using new technology and new approaches, researchers at Lund University in Sweden hope to be able to explain why people suffer vision loss in eye diseases such as retinal detachment and glaucoma. Research on diseases of the eye such as retinal detachme…
The Importance Of Early Diagnosis And Treatment Of Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) continues to be the leading cause of visual impairment in the United States for people over age 65, according to a study recently published online in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmo…
Near Vision Restored By Wearing Contact Lens Overnight
Wearing contact lenses overnight may offer a non-surgical alternative to restoring near vision without the need for glasses, according to a new Australian study that successfully tested the method in middle-aged patients with presbyopia, or age-relat…
How Deposits Of Cholesterol Contribute To Macular Degeneration And Atherosclerosis
A new study raises the intriguing possibility that drugs prescribed to lower cholesterol may be effective against macular degeneration, a blinding eye disease. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that age-rel…
Biomechanical Origins Of Common Eye Diseases Easier To Study With New “Stretched Tissue” Approach
Until now, researchers looking for the origins of eye diseases like detached retina and glaucoma have focused on biochemical processes…
AMD Blindness May Be Avoidable With Anti-Cholesterol Drugs
New research that links the causes of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with clogged arteries suggests anti-cholesterol drugs may halt the eye disease, the leading cause of blindess among older people in the US. In the 2 April issue of Cell Meta…
Nonsurgical Option Shows Promise In Restoring Near Vision Without Glasses
By middle age, most people have age-related declines in near vision (presbyopia) requiring bifocals or reading glasses…
Evolution Of Human Vision Enlightened By Genetic Study Of Tarsiers’ Bulging Eyes
After eons of wandering in the dark, primates developed highly acute, three-color vision that permitted them to shift to daytime living, a new Dartmouth College study suggests…
The Blind Aided By Virtual Games To Navigate Unknown Territory
JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) has published a new video article by Dr. Lotfi Merabet showing how researchers in the Department of Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School have developed a virtual gaming…
News From The Journal Of Clinical Investigation: March 25, 2013
A new therapeutic target in iron overload disorders Iron is required for multiple cellular functions, including the synthesis of hemoglobin, but a buildup of excess cellular iron can be toxic. Hepcidin is a circulating molecule produced by the liver th…
Brain’s Visual Cortex Activated By Reward Linked To Image
Once rhesus monkeys learn to associate a picture with a reward, the reward by itself becomes enough to alter the activity in the monkeys’ visual cortex. This finding was made by neurophysiologists Wim Vanduffel and John Arsenault (KU Leuven and Harvard…
Clinical Use Of Regenerative Human Cells Could Be Expanded By IUPUI Stem Cell Research
Research led by a biology professor in the School of Science at IUPUI has uncovered a method to produce retinal cells from regenerative human stem cells without the use of animal products, proteins or other foreign substances, which historically have l…
Randomized Trial Examines Supplementation In Age-Related Macular Degeneration
JAMA Ophthalmology Study Highlights A randomized trial by Christin Arnold, Dipl-Troph, of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, and colleagues found that a supplement containing a fixed combination of lutein, zeaxanthin and omega-3 long-chain po…
How Drosophila Recovers The Neurotransmitter Histamine
In the fruit fly Drosophila, the functions of the three enzymes Tan, Ebony and Black are closely intertwined – among other things they are involved in neurotransmitter recycling for the visual process. RUB researchers from the Department of Biochemistr…
Vitreomacular Traction Treatment JETREA(R) Gains EU Approval
ThromboGenics NV (Euronext Brussels: THR), an integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative ophthalmic medicines, has announced that the European Commission has approved JETREA(R) (ocriplasmin) in the Europe…
Multiple Genetic Factors Identified That Impact The Development Of Nearsightedness
In the largest ever genome-wide association study on myopia, 23andMe, the leading personal genetics company, identified 20 new genetic associations for myopia, or nearsightedness. The company also replicated two known associations in the study, which w…
In Pseudotumor Cerebri, A Potentially Blinding Vein Narrowing, Brain Stent Offers Alternative To Shunt
A team of interventional neuroradiologists and neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins reports wide success with a new procedure to treat pseudotumor cerebri, a rare but potentially blinding condition marked by excessive pressure inside the skull, caused by a d…
Study Evaluates Clinical Manifestations Of Cytomegalovirus Associated Eye Infections In Patients Without HIV
JAMA Ophthalmology Study Highlights The medical records of 18 patients (22 affected eyes) were reviewed as part of a case series study in an academic research setting by Kessara Pathanapitoon, M.D., Ph.D…
Cause Of Pediatric Blindness From Eye Disease In Question
Vision scientists long have thought that lack of very long chain fatty acids in photoreceptor cells caused blindness in children with Stargardt type 3 retinal degeneration, an incurable eye disease. But researchers at the University of Utah’s John A…