Researchers from the University of Leicester in the UK are hoping to learn more about eye diseases by using a scanning technique that works by “lighting up the brain”. Professor Irene Gottlob and using a special technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine exactly what is happening in the brain of people suffering from eye diseases such as glaucoma and the eye movement disorder nystagmus. fMRI’s ability to detect changes in blood flow in the brain which occur in response to brain activity will show the researchers which parts of the brain “light up” when healthy people and those with eye diseases look at images. “Understanding how the brain works in conjunction with the eyes is an important step to fully understanding what happens in eye diseases,” Gottlob concluded.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.bbc.co.uk on the 7th October 2002
