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NEI Research News

Thanks to the work of NEI scientists and grantees, we’re constantly learning new information about the causes and treatment of vision disorders. Get the latest updates about their work — along with other news about NEI.

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NEI-funded study explores how thoughts influence what the eyes see

A new study show how the brain’s visual regions play an active role in making sense of information. Crucially, the way it interprets the information depends on what the rest of the brain is working on.

Researchers study how brains remember multiple things at once

Research funded by the National Eye Institute offers insight into what is happening in our brains when our working memory must use its limited resources to remember multiple things.
optic nerves

Nerve regrowth in sight

UConn scientists led by Ephraim Trakhtenberg regrew optic nerves in mice through eye injections of fibronectin peptides (pieces of the larger protein).
Zebrafish, imaged via fluorescence confocal microscopy

New model of neuronal circuit provides insight on eye movement

Working with week-old zebrafish larva, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and colleagues decoded how the connections formed by a network of neurons in the brainstem guide the fishes’ gaze.

NIH-led scientific team defines elements of brain-based visual impairment in children

Experts convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified five elements of a brain-based condition that has emerged as a leading cause of vision impairment starting in childhood in the United States and other industrialized nations.
Many items on a workbench.

‘Visual clutter’ alters information flow in the brain

Too much stuff in the periphery of our vision can make it difficult to identify what we’re seeing. Yale researchers now know how that clutter affects the brain.
Okihide Hikosaka

Hikosaka selected as citation laureate

Each year, the Institute for Scientific Information selects a list of Nobel-class scientists based on journal citation volume.
Schematic showing regions of the brain.

Activity in brain system that controls eye movements highlights importance of spatial thinking

New research from UChicago shows that the superior colliculus, a brain region that controls eye movements, also plays an important role in higher cognitive functions like categorization and decision making.

Brain wiring is guided by activity even in very early development

Researchers have identified how brain cells begin to coalesce into a wired network in early development before experience has a chance to shape the brain.

A brain fingerprint: Study uncovers unique brain plasticity in people born blind

A study led by Georgetown University neuroscientists reveals that the part of the brain that receives and processes visual information in sighted people develops a unique connectivity pattern in people born blind.