Peripheral Visual Function: Accessing the Unexplored

Our peripheral and central visual systems work synchronously to capture the world we see, while the central vision tells us "what" we are looking at, our peripheral vision helps us orient ourselves. Loss of peripheral vision would mean loss of edge detection, movement recognition and ultimately orientation. Unfortunately, unavailability of test targeting the periphery make it impossible to detect and monitor neurodegenerative diseases that first manifest in these regions. My research focuses on the design and development of a diagnostic testing system that targets the peripheral visual field. PeriStim‚Ñ¢ is a novel three-dimensional hemispherical pattern stimulus source capable of detecting functional changes in the eye before any significant peripheral cell loss is seen. This can help in early disease detection, assessment, prognosis, and management. This image was taken at the Neural Engineering Vision Laboratory (NEVL). It shows a subject undergoing the PeriStim‚Ñ¢ test: The subject sits at a fixed distance with a recording electrode placed in the eye while a checkered pattern stimulus is presented. The electrode measures the response of the eye to this stimulus. The recorded response is called the peripheral pattern electroretinogram (ppERG).