Outreach Programme
National Networks
IMAGING NETWORK
POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY(PET)
MAGNETIC RESSONANCE
HIGH-DENSITY EEG/ERP
ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPE NETWORK
TRANSMISSION ELECTRONIC MICROSCOPE
International Networks
We are currently involved in the implementation of an joint Education and Research Initiative with Harvard Medical School. One of the partners will be the Department of Ophthalmology from Harvard Medical School. This institution has already manifested its willingness to participate.
AIBILI is one of the partners involved in the Integrated Project Functional Genomics of the Retina in Health and Disease - EVI-GENORET (6th EU Framework Programme LSHG-CT-512036). The aim of this project is to build on our understanding of the fundamental molecular and cellular biology of the retina, of its development and the way it is perturbed by genetic mutation, environmental factors and age.
1. Setting-up new research agreements within the scope of this European Network (aside from the already existing concerning Monogenic Retinal Dystrophies and Age-Related Macular Degenerations.
2. Developing translational research collaborations that extend our expertise in genotype-phenotype correlations in humans also to animal models.
EVI.CT.SE - European Vision Institute. Clinical Trials. Sites of Excellence
European Vision Institute. Clinical Trials. Sites of Excellence (EVI.CT.SE) is a network of European Ophthalmologic Clinical Research Sites, dedicated to perform clinical research in ophthalmology with the highest standards of quality. The EVI.CT.SE Network is a Special Committee of the EVI eeig and its Coordinating Office is located at AIBILI, in Coimbra, Portugal.
This Network aims to perform clinical trials efficiently and professionally, striving for excellence in clinical research following the European and International Directives for clinical trial research (Declaration of Helsinki, ICH GCP Guidelines, Clinical Directive EU and local legislations). This is accomplished by certification of the Candidate Clinical Sites that fulfil Basic Requirements. All Clinical Sites are subject to an independent Evaluation Visit in order to confirm that they comply with ICH GCP Guidelines and they need to implement EVI.CT.SE organizational Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in order to perform clinical trials according to ICH CGP Guidelines.
This Network aims to be a professional and attractive resource to the Pharmaceutical Industry when planning to perform a multicentric Clinical Trial in ophthalmology, in Europe.
It is an efficient way to identify experienced qualified professional Clinical Sites with expertise and well equipped to perform Clinical Trials in Ophthalmology according to ICH GCP Guidelines.
During AAO 2006 (Las Vegas, USA) a meeting was held with representatives from the major Companies Alcon, Allergan, Novartis, Pfizer and Théa, to sign with EVI.CT.SE an Agreement in order to sponsor the EVI.CT.SE Network with an unrestricted grant for a period of 2 years.
EVI.CT.SE Network was also presented to EMEA - European Medicines Agency that considered the Network an essential component in their policy to guarantee uniformity and quality of data collection. EMEA would very much support the development of EVI.CT.SE harmonized procedures and techniques in the area of Ophthalmology.
EVI.CT.SE is expected to create the appropriate environment for efficient and high quality clinical trial performance in Europe.
At the moment the Network has 42 members (from 14 European countries) in the process of certification and another 7 candidate centres.
Collaborations with Brain Imaging Center in Maastricht
In this collaboration, we will focus on two main areas: 1. mechanisms of short and long term visual plasticity in health and disease 2. mechanisms of motion perception and multimodal auditory and visual integration.
1. Mechanisms of short and long term visual plasticity in health and disease
A. Short term plasticity
This Research collaboration will focus on neuronal mechanisms of vision from receptor cell level to cortical visual centres. Physiological as well as pathophysiological neuronal mechanisms should be addressed in multiple visual pathways. As a final goal we aim to set a firm scientific ground for improvement of visual perception by low vision aids and training.
As a model of short term plasticity, we will study visual filling-in. This refers to the phenomenon that occurs when, after a few seconds, a figure steadily presented in peripheral vision becomes perceptually filled-in by its background, as if it ‘‘disappeared’’.
This visual illusion referred to as perceptual filling-in, occurs because the visual system interpolates information across regions of the visual field where physical evidence of that information is lacking,
Perceptual filling-in occurs quasi-instantaneously across the blind spot, as has been described in physiological studies (e.g., Komatsu, Kinoshita, & Murakami, 2000, 2002; Fiorani, Rosa, Gattass, & Rocha- Miranda, 1992). This is also the case also for pathological scotomas (Sergent, 1988; Bender & Teuber, 1946) as well as across entopic images of vasculature (Coppola & Purves, 1996). Slower filling-in within the range of a few seconds has been reported under conditions of artificial retinal stabilization (Yarbus, 1967; Gerrits, de Haan, & Vendrik, 1966; Ratliff, 1958), and during stabilization of peripheral images under natural fixation (Riggs, Ratliff, Cornsweet, & Cornsweet, 1953; Troxler, 1804).
It is an open question whether similar neural interpolation mechanisms that underlie perceptual filling-in also play a role during normal surface perception (Paradiso & Nakayama, 1991; Gerritts & Vendrik, 1970; Walls, 1954). The time required before perceptual filling-in depends on level of retinal staibilization and ensuing adaptation of boundary representations, figure size and the length of its boundaries projected on the retinotopic cortex, the relative sizes of figure and background (Sakaguchi, 2001; De Weerd, Desimone, & Ungerleider, 1998), and salience of the figure (Stuerzel & Spillmann, 2001; Welchman & Harris, 2001).
Fast (on a time scale of milliseconds) filling-in of brightness during normal surface perception has been demonstrated with a masking procedure by Paradiso and Nakayama (1991). The basic finding has been replicated im other experimental (Paradiso & Hahn, 1996; Rossi & Paradiso, 1996; Todorovic, 1987) and theoretical (Neumann et al., 2001; Arrington, 1994; Grossberg & Todorovic, 1988) studies. It is believed that neural interpolation is a consequence of activity increases resulting from an adaptation of inhibitory inputs to the neurons with classical RFs overlapping with the figure, such that ordinarily ineffective excitatory inputs from the background in the RF surround became effective in driving these neurons (for review, Tremere, Pinaud, & De Weerd, 2003).
It is likely that mechanisms of figure–ground segregation and interpolation are in part carried out by distinct feature dependent mechanisms in different cortical áreas (Gattass, Pessoa, De Weerd, & Fiorani, 1998; Ramachandran & Gregory, 1991). Interpolation mechanisms are likely to involve horizontal connections (Gilbert & Wiesel, 1989) as well as feedback connections. Indeed, long-range horizontal connections have a tendency to connect orientation columns with similar preferred orientations (Gilbert & Wiesel, 1989) may contribute to the perceived similarity of filled-in line texture across the figure and background.
B. Mechanisms of long term plasticity upon visual impairment
We will focus on two main disease models
Retinits pigmentosa and annular impairment of peripheral vision.
Glaucoma and piecemeal impairment of peripheral vision.
Genetic and acquired macular degeneration as models to study impairment of central vision, and remediation strategies (eg. Training of novel preferred fixation loci).
In order to understand mechanisms of cortical reorganization we will study the dynamics of filling-in processes in long term scotomas and study their remapping in cortical retinotopic maps.
2. Mechanisms of motion perception and multimodal auditory and visual integration.
We will continue our ongoing collaboration to study the neural correlates of local/global visual motion perception.
We will further extend this collaboration on ongoing work that attempts to understand how visual and auditory motion signals are integrated by the human brain.
· Projects within the 7th Framework Program with an emphasis on Ageing and Medical Imaging
- MIRROR: Multi-modal non-invasive in vivo imaging of the ocular fundus as a predictor for morbidity in older adults (7FP - Collaborative Project)
- EuroVisionNet: Visual Impairment and Degeneration: A Road-map for Vision Research within Europe (7FP – Coordination Action)