The York Research Database

Visual loss is a debilitating and isolating condition that can arise from
dysfunction of the eye or brain. There are many instances of visual loss arising
atypically, which presents a challenge for clinicians in terms of advising the
patient and establishing appropriate treatments. On such occasions it can be
beneficial to use tests and techniques that are developed in research
laboratories outside the NHS. For example, careful neuropsychological,
electrodiagnostic and neuroimaging approaches that are developed in research
labs can inform on the reasons for visual loss. The nature of this study is to
test patients with visual loss with research procedures so that the patient and
their carers are better informed about the reasons for their visual loss and that
clinicians might be able to establish better treatment strategies. There are also
benefits to research as it is through the investigations of atypical patients that
we often gain greatest insight to how visual perception is achieved by the
interplay between signalling in the eye and the processing of those signals in
the brain.