Thesis Project Form

The proposed thesis is in connection with an International Project (started February 2022) financed by the National Institute of Health of U.S. in collaboration with: Northeastern University, Boston and UC Berkeley, San Francisco. The Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital is also involved.

Binocular vision relies on a synergy between sensory and motor fusional mechanisms that jointly construct a single percept of the environment from the differing images formed on the two retinae. A failure in either component of this system, especially during development, can lead to permanent binocular vision impairment.
Current limitations to treat amblyopia are at least partly due to a lack of practical methodologies for the assessment of sensory-motor function and partly due to a lack of co-ordinated sensory-motor therapies.
The overall goal is to demonstrate the theoretical foundation for combined sensory and motor therapeutic approaches to binocular visual dysfunction.
The thesis will develop and evaluate methods to measure sensory and motor deficits in persons with binocular vision impairment and to provide a quantitative framework for evidence-based assessment of sensory-motor therapy.

- Apply knowledge of physiology and of computational models of active binocular vision to develop assessment methodology and visuomotor therapies
- Design of experimental environments for conditioning binocular vision experience and exercise oculomotor function in controlled ecological conditions