PhD Studentship available within the Centre for Applied Vison Research (School of Health and Psychological Sciences), City St George’s University, London.

PhD project

The GlareRet project, aims to explore long-range interactions within the retina in relation to aging and also in patients with retinal disease.  This study is based on empirical observations which suggest that, in some subjects, stimulation of the peripheral retina affects visual sensitivity in central vision and that this effect cannot be attributed to light scatter in the eye. Observations also suggest that the effect is much larger in patients with early diseases of the retina.

The project proposes to develop and validate a new test to investigate how stimulation of the peripheral retina at discrete eccentricities (when complete cancellation of scattered light is achieved), affects the sensitivity of the central foveal region. Once validated, the test will be used to investigate how the strength of these long-range, retinal interactions vary as a function of age in heathy normal subjects. Preliminary experiments will also be carried out to assess the potential advantage of this test as an early-stage, biomarker of retinal disease in patients with signs of age-related macular-degeneration and also in subjects identified as being at risk of developing glaucoma and diabetes.

(For an informal conversation about the GlareRet project, please contact Professor John Barbur on j.l.barbur@city.ac.uk)

Students will receive a maintenance grant that is aligned with the UKRI rate (including London weighting), currently £21,237 per annum, and home tuition fees. Overseas students who are successful will have to meet the difference between the home fee, included in the funding, and the overseas fee.

For more details please click the 'Apply' button, above

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