An Earlier Sign Of Autism In The Brain

...In their first year of life, babies who will go on to develop autism already show different brain responses when someone looks at or away from them. Although the researchers are careful to say that the study, reported online in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, is only a first step toward earlier diagnosis, the findings do suggest that direct brain measures might help to predict the future development of autism symptoms in infants as young as six months....

Will You Boycott Elsevier?

An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education noted that: .....According to the boycotters, Elsevier, which publishes over 2,000 journals including the prestigious Cell and The Lancet, is abusing academic researchers in three areas. First there are the prices. Then the company bundles subscriptions to lesser journals together with valuable ones, forcing libraries to spend money to buy things they don't want in order to get a few things they do want. And, most recently, Elsevier has supported a proposed federal law, the Research Works Act (HR 3699), that could prevent agencies like the National Institutes of Health from making all articles written by grant recipients freely available.....

Will you boycott Elsevier? Tell them how you feel. DM

Neurocognitive mechanisms of gaze-expression interactions in face processing and social attention.

....The face conveys a rich source of non-verbal information used during social communication. ....Here we review recent behavioral and neuroscientific evidence suggesting that within the dynamic stream, concurrent changes in eye gaze and emotional expression can yield early independent effects on face judgments and covert shifts of visuospatial attention.....

Call for Papers & Posters for COVD 42nd Annual Meeting

Call for Papers & Posters for COVD 42nd Annual Meeting

COVD is soliciting abstracts for papers and posters to be presented at the COVD 42nd Annual Meeting in Ft. Worth, Texas. Any person wishing to make a presentation is invited to submit a proposal as outlined below.

All abstracts will be reviewed by the Research Committee and will be judged on the basis of overall quality, completion of required information, relevance to behavioral and functional vision, subject matter, innovation, and attention to key questions in the field. Proposals may include research results, case studies, or new and innovative diagnostic procedures or treatment techniques.

 Download the application

Deadline for submission of abstracts is June 11, 2012

Visual perceptual strengths and weaknesses in adults with intellectual disabilities compared with a birth year-matched norm.

Visual perceptual strengths and weaknesses in adults with intellectual disabilities compared with a birth year-matched no

.... The ventral and dorsal streams are considered to be the brain substrates of vision for perception and action, respectively. Using the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP), the current study examined whether visual perceptual strengths and weaknesses in adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) were attributable to the dichotomy of the visual streams. ....  Visual perceptual strengths and weaknesses in persons with ID were difficult to explain on the basis of two visual streams. An interpretation originating in a different research context (e.g. frontal-lobe dysfunction) appears to be required for explaining visual perceptual weaknesses in persons with ID. For persons with DS, strong frontal-lobe dysfunction with atypical lateralisation might be the pathological determinant of visual perceptual weaknesses....

Virtual Reality Anatomy: Is It Comparable with Traditional Methods in the Teaching of Human Forearm Musculoskeletal Anatomy?

The use of cadavers to teach anatomy is well established, but limitations with this approach have led to the introduction of alternative teaching methods. One such method is the use of three-dimensional virtual reality computer models. ....... The groups were assessed on anatomy of the forearm by a ten question practical examination. ANOVA analysis showed the model group mean test score to be significantly higher than the control group ..... and not significantly different to the traditional methods group ..... Feedback from all users of the e-resource was positive. Virtual reality anatomy learning can be used to compliment traditional teaching methods effectively.....

Migraine and stroke: a complex association with clinical implications

Migraine and stroke are two common and heterogeneous neurovascular disorders with complex relations. ....but a doubling of the risk of ischaemic stroke in people who have migraine with aura. ....... Whether the increased risk of ischaemic stroke applies to migraine with aura as a primary headache disorder or is partly due to migraine with aura secondary to other disorders remains to be elucidated....

 

American Conference on Pediatric Visual Impairment

American Conference on Pediatric Visual Impairment: 

More Information

2012 Robert Wold Southern California Behavioral Vision Seminar

The Behavioral Vision Seminar will be held on March 11-12, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (Mission Valley) in San Diego.This year's speakers will be Ken Ciuffreda O.D., PhD. and Diana Eastman-Ludlum.

 

For a Program and Registration form please email Donald J. Janiuk, O.D., FCOVD at [email protected]

 

American Conference on Pediatric Cerebral Visual Impairment

Registration is now open for

 

The American Conference on Pediatric Cerebral Visual Impairment.  

This conference will take place on Friday, April 20th at the Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.  The conference brochure and registration webpage can be found at www.childrensomaha.org/upcomingconferences.

We are honored to have the following panel of experts:  Mark Borchert, MD, Dominick Maino, OD, MEd, FAAO, FCOVD-A, Christine Roman Lantzy, PhD and Jacy VerMaas-Lee, MA, OTR/L.   

The thesis of the conference is to bring together experts from ophthalmology, optometry, occupational therapy and vision education to discuss the definition, diagnosis, assessment of visual function, treatment and management of pediatric CVI.  What makes this conference unique is the multidisciplinary format in which each expert will address each of four topics concerning CVI   There will be a discussion session to include questions from the audience after each topic is covered.  All professionals from each of the four disciplines represented will be in the same lecture room at the same time.

The goals of the conference are two.  First, to increase understanding of pediatric CVI.  Second, and just as important, is to improve interdisciplinary understanding regarding what each of our disciplines is trying to accomplish for these children.  Most of these patients have an ophthalmologist, a therapeutic optometrist, an occupational therapist and a vision teacher.  By understanding each others approach to these patients, and being able to communicate more effectively with each other, the level of care provided to these children should be elevated.

Ophthalmologists, optometrists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language therapists, teachers, orthoptists, technicians and nurses are all invited to attend. 

Watch for.....

...in the new book from Lippincott...

Visual Diagnosis and Care

of the Patient with Special Needs

Edited by:

Marc B. Taub, OD, MS, FAAO, FCOVD,

Mary Bartuccio, OD, FAAO, FCOVD,  

Dominick M. Maino, OD, MEd, FAAO, FCOVD-A

Available from Amazon for pre-order.... 

Child Vision Research Society

My colleague,  Dr. Susan Leat, recently sent me this email about the Child Vision Research Society conference. Please read. Send in an abstract. Tell your friends....

I am writing to let you know about the Child Vision Research Society 2013, in case you might not be aware of it. The Child Vision Research Society (CVRS) comprises researchers from many different countries interested in the development of vision in infancy and childhood under normal and abnormal conditions. A wide range of disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, neurology, psychology, ophthalmology and rehabilitation are represented in the CVRS. The CVRS holds a conference every 2 years, to provide an opportunity for exchanging new ideas and findings between basic scientists and clinicians concerned with vision in infants and children. This conference has always been held in Europe until now. But we are pleased and excited to have been chosen to hold it in Canada-the first time in North America and this will be in June 2013. We are therefore hoping to bring together researchers in this field from Europe and North America. I, together with Carol Westall, am organizing it and it will be held both in the School of Optometry and Vision Science, Waterloo and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto.

So I am contacting you to invite you personally to submit (when the call for abstracts comes out) and attend.

You can see more details at http://www.cvrsoc.org/ and you can also join the mailing list (http://www.cvrsoc.org/?page_id=17) , if you are not already on it, so that you receive the updates when they are sent out (we don’t send large numbers of mailings, just in case you are worried about numerous e mails).

If you know of others who might be interested, please feel free to forward the message.

Regards,

Sue Leat

 Susan Jennifer Leat, BSc, PhD, FCOptom, FAAO
Professor
Head of Residencies
http://www.optometry.uwaterloo.ca/people/leat/