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The Smith-Kettlewell Eye
Research Institute
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Welcome to the Heinen Lab
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| Our
laboratory studies how neurons in the brain process information about
the visual world in order to direct the eyes towards an object of
interest. We focus on smooth pursuit eye movements, which are used to
follow moving objects. The work addresses how perceptual and
cognitive
areas of the brain guide this sophisticated eye movement system, and
also how signals encoded by populations of neurons in visual motion
processing regions are converted into commands that
activate muscles which rotate the eyes.
The primary goal of our research is to provide information that will aid in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as strabismus and amblyopia which affect systems in the brain that subserve vision and the control of eye movements. The work should also lead to the eventual development of robotic prosthetics that move the eyes properly in patients who have lost the ability to do so on their own. The secondary goal of the research is to explore basic neural information coding to better understand and cure devastating cognitive disorders of movement and perception such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. |
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