National Eye Institute

NEI News

Brain Training May Bolster Visual Attention

If a study participant were instructed to pay attention to “scenes” and he was attending well, he would be shown the top image as a reward. As his attention lapsed, the middle and bottom images would be shown. The face in the photograph is that of the study’s first author, Megan deBettencourt, a doctoral candidate at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

People are bad at staying focused. We’ve all had our minds wander when we try to concentrate on a task that requires paying close attention but isn’t all that engaging. But a new NIH-funded study suggests that one’s capacity to stay focused can improve with real-time feedback.

Posted on Feb 18, 2015

Eylea outperforms other drugs for diabetic macular edema with moderate or worse vision loss

Illustration showing the retina as seen through a dilated pupil.

In an NIH-supported clinical trial comparing three drugs for diabetic macular edema (DME), Eylea (aflibercept) provided greater visual improvement, on average, than did Avastin (bevacizumab) or Lucentis (ranibizumab) when vision was 20/50 or worse at the start of the trial.

Posted on Feb 18, 2015

Facts About Color Blindness

What color is a strawberry? Most of us would say red, but do we all see the same red? Color vision depends on our eyes and brain working together to perceive different properties of light.
NEI Audacious Goals Initiative

The AGI is catalyzing research that will enable the restoration of vision through regeneration of the retina.
Educational Resources for Children

We’ve developed videos and other materials to help students learn about healthy vision, eye safety, how the eyes work, and more.
Eye Health Infographics

Use these graphics to share information quickly and clearly. Topics include AMD, cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, low vision and more.
NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative

Enabling biomedical scientists to capitalize more fully on large, complex, and diverse datasets.