Visual system development (VisIoNS)
ions | Bruxelles Woluwe, Louvain-la-Neuve
The VisIoNS group investigates the neurophysiological foundations of visual system development, with a focus on amblyopia and strabismus. Amblyopia arises from a mismatch between the images transmitted to the visual cortex by each eye during the critical period of the visual system development. This mismatch can result from strabismus, anisometropia, or organic conditions such as ptosis or congenital cataracts. As a consequence, amblyopia leads to suppression of the non-dominant eye, reduced visual acuity, and impaired binocular vision.
Beyond these deficits, amblyopia is linked to dysfunction in the ventral visual pathway, notably contributing to poor reading performance. Studying the ventral stream with sweep visual evoked potentials revealed that vision extends beyond mere discrimination processes to encompass recognition mechanisms, engaging extensive occipito-temporal regions in the left or right hemisphere, depending on the individual. The dorsal pathway is also affected in the case of amblyopia, impacting visuomotor skills such as grasping and balance. Our research on the dorsal pathway encompasses various clinical aspects, including the study of saccades and pursuit movements in amblyopia and different forms of strabismus, such as Duane retraction syndrome.
In addition, the research group explores the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, particularly for screening and diagnosing rare ophthalmologic diseases using multimodal imaging. A key challenge in this field is the scarcity of data needed to train AI models effectively and ensure optimal performance. To address this, we employ data augmentation techniques using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). These techniques have proven to be a promising solution for enhancing existing datasets both quantitatively and qualitatively, particularly in the study of inherited retinal diseases.