Tag Archives: research

Use of Prism Glasses in PSP questionnaire now live!

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Coronavirus has meant many of our projects have ground to a halt, but in spite of the disruption we’ve been pressing on by moving some research online. Something we’re delighted to be making progress with is Dan Ford and James Ireland’s MSc project, which explores the use of prism glasses by people with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). People with PSP often have problems looking downwards, which makes it hard for them to see what is happening in the lower visual field. Many everyday tasks like eating, reading and using a computer rely on being able to look down into the lower part of the visual field, which makes them very difficult for people with PSP. Prism glasses bend the light so that that the lower visual field can be seen without having to move the eyes. They are cheap and easy to use, so appear to have great potential as a compensatory tool. They are widely used to treat other neurological disorders which affect vision, such has hemispatial neglect and hemianopia.

However, prisms do have some disadvantages. For example, they can be heavy and it takes time to get used to the way they change how the world looks. Furthermore, nobody really knows how useful they are or how widely used they are because nobody has asked people with PSP. Dan and James’s project aims to start answering this important issue by surveying people with PSP about their attitudes towards, and experiences of, using prism glasses. It’s one of the first surveys of its kind and we’re hoping that the results will help us better understand how people use prisms, whether they find them useful, and/or the problems or impediments that people experience when using prism glasses. If you have PSP and would like to take part the questionnaire can be found here:

https://durhampsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eqxcolUWzqVSPjv

Dan and James are being supervised by Dr Alison Lane and the project is a collaboration with the PSP Association.  You can find out more about Dr Ali Lane’s research on neurorehabilitation on her homepage.

If you are interested, some of our related research can be found here:

 

 

Thoughts on Prof Tim Hodgson’s seminar on Development of Oculomotor Control

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I was  delighted to welcome Prof Tim Hodgson from Lincoln University to Durham to give a seminar on his recent work exploring the development of oculomotor control in young children. His talk drew on a series of experiments conducted at the Lincoln Summer Scientist event where Tim and his team examined oculomotor behaviours in children as young as 3! The surprising result (to me at least!) was that very young children seemed to experience a ‘sticky fixation’, such that their gaze remained locked at fixation when a target jumped from fixation to the periphery, or when gaze cues were used to direct saccades. Gaze cues automatically activate saccade programmes in adults (e.g. Kuhn & Kingstone 2009), so the fact that these young children don’t reflexively follow gaze cues suggested to me that perhaps gaze-cueing is a learned, rather than instinctual behaviour (Cole Smith & Atkinson 2015). More provocatively, Tim also argued that even though the children’s eyes were ‘stuck’ at fixation, they were nevertheless able to covertly orient into the periphery. I harrumphed my approval at this little bit of premotor theory bashing but was mindful it was based on the observation that children were able to accurately report the appearance of a peripheral target, even though they failed to execute a saccade towards it. As Bob Kentridge suggested, perhaps there was overactive fixation which prevents the release of a saccade but not the programming of the saccade. All in all it was a fascinating and thought-provoking seminar. We then retired to the Vic for refreshments and further discussion.

Kuhn, G., & Kingstone, A. (2009). Look away! Eyes and arrows engage oculomotor responses automatically. Attention Perception & Psychophysics, 71(2), 314-327. doi:10.3758/app.71.2.314

Cole, G.G., Smith, D.T. & Atkinson, M.A. (2015). Mental state attribution and the gaze cueing effect. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 77(4): 1105-1115.

Dan Smith