Clinical Psychophysics Unit
Research Team
- Dr Allison McKendrick
- Dr Geoff Sampson
- Dr Josephine Battista
National & International Collaborators
- Professor David Badcock - Psychology, University of Western Australia
- Dr Andrew Turpin - Computer Science, RMIT University
- Dr Chris Johnson - Devers Eye Institute, Portland, USA
- Dr Stuart Gardiner, Devers Eye Institute, Portland, Oregon, USA
The research conducted in the Clinical Psychophysics Laboratory uses visual psychophysics as a tool to better understand both normal visual processing and damage due to disease. The laboratory has specific interests in the study of glaucoma, and migraine. Our broad aims include developing better clinical tests for the assessment of visual damage as well as improving our understanding of the disease process.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in developed nations such as Australia. We are interested in developing better tests to detect visual damage due to glaucoma and to subsequently monitor progression of the disease process. We are approaching this challenge from two perspectives:
- Development of better test algorithms for perimetry (with Dr Andrew Turpin, Department of Computer Science, RMIT);
- Development of new test stimuli (with Prof David Badcock, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia).
Migraine
Migraine is a very common neurological condition affecting approximately 15% of the population. Many people with migraine experience visual symptoms during their attacks, either in the form of a visual aura, or as subtler symptoms such as blur or difficulty focussing. We are interested in exploring the nature and cause of these visual symptoms to enable a better understanding of the areas of the visual pathway involved in migraine, as well as assisting in accurate differential diagnosis of visual symptoms in people with migraine. Our work indicates that changes in visual field sensitivity, in cortical visual processing, and in early pre-cortical visual processing, are abnormal in some people in migraine, at times between their attacks.
Selected Recent Publications
- McKendrick AM, Badcock DR, Morgan WH. (2004). Psychophysical measurement of neural adaptation abnormalities in magnocellular and parvocellular pathways in glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 45: 1846-53.
- McKendrick AM, Badcock DR. (2004). Decreased visual field sensitivity measured 1 day, then 1 week, after migraine. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 45: 1061-1070.
- McKendrick AM, Badcock DR, Morgan WH. (2005). The detection of both global motion and global form is disrupted in glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 46: 3693-701.
- McKendrick AM, Turpin A. (2005). Combining perimetric suprathreshold and threshold procedures to reduce measurement variability in areas of visual field loss. Optom Vis Sci, 82: 43-51.
- McKendrick AM, Badcock DR, Gurgone M. (2006). Vernier acuity is normal in migraine whereas global form and global motion perception are not. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 47: 3213-9.