Publications

What do patients think about the role of optometrists in providing advice about smoking and nutrition?

Downie LE, Douglass A, Guest D, Keller PR.

Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2017 Mar;37(2):202-211.

We used a survey to show that most patients expected their optometrist to ask them about their smoking and diet habits, and felt comfortable discussing these topics with their primary eye care provider.

Optical Coherence Tomography reveals changes to corneal reflectivity and thickness in reactivity in the human retinal microvascular measured during acute gas breathing provocations.

Duan A, Bedggood PA, Metha AB, Bui BV.

Sci Rep. 2017 May 18;7(1):2113.

Using adaptive optics and gas breathing to induce hyperoxia or hypercapnia, we show that capillary beds play an important role in the retinal response to changes in carbon dioxide levels, previously only documented for retinal arterioles and venules.

TFOS DEWS II Management and Therapy Report

Jones L, Downie LE, Korb D, Benitez-Del-Castillo JM, Dana R, Deng SX, Dong PN, Geerling G, Hida RY, Liu Y, Seo KY, Tauber J, Wakamatsu TH, Xu J, Wolffsohn JS, Craig JP.

Ocul Surf. 2017 Jul;15(3):575-628

This review provides an evidence-based synthesis of current therapies and management op-tions for dry eye disease, including its dominant sub-types of aqueous-deficient and evapora-tive dry eye.

Coding of spatial attention priorities and object features in the macaque lateral intraparietal cortex.

Levichkina E, Saalmann YB, Vidyasagar TR.

Physiol Rep. 2017 Mar;5(5). pii: e13136.

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC)is known to be involved in controlling spatial attention. This study investigates neurons in one part of the PPC, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP), which show enhanced responses to objects at attended locations.

The effect of aging and attention on visual crowding and surround suppression of perceived contrast thershold.

Malavita MS, Vidyasagar TR, McKendrick AM.

Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2017 Feb 1;58(2):860-867.

We show that ageing does not affect visual crowding but does increase surround suppression of contrast, suggesting that crowding and surround suppression may be distinct visual phenomena.

Vision science and adaptive optics, the state of the field.

Marcos S, Werner JS, Burns SA, Merigan WH, Artal P, Atchison DA, Hampson KM, Legras R, Lundstrom L, Yoon G, Carroll J, Choi SS, Doble N, Dubis AM, Dubra A, Elsner A, Jonnal R, Miller DT, Paques M, Smithson HE, Young LK, Zhang Y, Campbell M, Hunter J, Metha A, Palczewska G, Schallek J, Sincich LC.

Vision Res. 2017 Mar;132:3-33.

The editors of this feature issue have posed a series of question to scientists involved in using adaptive optics in vision science, regarding its use in behavioural testing, retinal imaging, and understanding the neurophysiology of vision.

Behavioural measures of cortical hyperexcitability assessed in people who experience visual snow.

McKendrick AM, Chan YM, Tien M, Millist L, Clough M, Mack H, Fielding J, White OB.

Neurology. 2017 Mar 28;88(13):1243-1249

Visual snow is a recently recognised visual disturbance. This is the first study to provide evidence for abnormal perceptual testing in people with visual snow.

The proportion of individuals likely to benefit from customized optic nerve head structure-function mapping.

McKendrick AM, Denniss J, Wang YX, Jonas JB, Turpin A.

Ophthalmology. 2017 Apr;124(4):554-561.

Anatomically, individual, customized mapping shifts the map between DNH and Visual field markedly in approximately 12% of the general population in the important nasal step region, where visual field locations can map to the opposite pole of the optic nerve head than conventionally considered.

Tablets at the bedside - iPad-based visual field test used in the diagnosis of Intrasellar Haemangiopericytoma: a case report.

Nesaratnam N, Thomas PBM, Kirollos R, Vingrys AJ, Kong GYX, Martin KR.

BMC Ophthalmol. 2017 Apr 24;17(1):53.

We describe how an iPad visual field test (Melbourne Rapid Field) undertaken at the bedside of a 73-year-old lady aided in directing timely investigation and management of this patient.

Retinal biomarkers provide "insight" into cortical pharmacology and disease.

Nguyen CT, Hui F, Charng J, Velaedan S, van Koeverden AK, Lim JK, He Z, Wong VH, Vingrys AJ, Bui BV, Ivarsson M.

Pharmacol Ther. 2017 Feb 5. pii: S0163-7258(17)30023-2.

Objectively measured characteristics that are an indicator of normal or pathogenic processes, or pharmacological responses to therapies, are known as biomarkers. This review examines the strength of retinal biomarkers and their future potential both in preclinical and clinical domains.

Masking of random-walk motion by flicker, and its role in the allocation of motion in the online jitter illusion.

Park ASY, Bedggood PA, Metha AB, Anderson AJ.

Vision Res. 2017 Jul 13;137:50-60

We find that flickering a pattern showing random-walk motion impairs the detection of this motion, but not enough to explain why flickering regions appear stable in an illusion used to expose tiny, fixational eye movements.

The interpretation of results of 10-2 visual fields should consider individual variability in the position in the position of the optic disc and temporal raphe.

Tanabe F, Matsumoto C, McKendrick AM, Okuyama S, Hashimoto S, Shimomura Y.

Br J Ophthalmol. 2017 Jul 8.

Individual variation in the position of the disc and raphe affects the mapping between structure and function with respect to superior and inferior hemifields, and so should be considered when mapping between structure and function for the 10-2 test pattern.

A comparison of the self-reported dry eye practices of New Zealand optometrists and ophthalmologists.

Xue AL, Downie LE, Ormonde SE, Craig JP.

Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2017 Mar;37(2):191-201.

New Zealand eye-care professionals combine subjective and objective techniques to diagnose and stratify dry eye management. There is potential to improve research evidence dissemination, with continuing education via conferences the favoured delivery mode.

Characterization of the circumlimbal suture model of chronic IOP elevation in mice and assessment of changes in gene expression of stretch sensitive channels.

Zhao D, Nguyen CT, Wong VH, Lim JK, He Z, Jobling AI, Fletcher EL, Chinnery HR, Vingrys AJ, Bui BV.

Front Neurosci. 2017 Feb 10;11:41.

A simple loop placed around the eye successfully elevated intraocular pressure in mouse eyes. Chronic intraocular pressure elevation in this model changed ganglion cell structure and function, resembling human glaucoma. These deficits were associated with changes in purinergic signalling.