How much of the brain?

[Primate]

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A question for those more familiar with research in the ophtho arena than am I. How broad are the questions regarding neuroscience one can address in ophtho (and get funding and department support). Certainly, looking at any part of the brain/mind in the visual pathway is in the ophtho's purview, but what about more general questions about brain development (forebrain development, for example). Are there investigators working on questions like brain patterning and such?

(And, yes, I've looked at med-line - the problem is that unless you pull each paper, you don't know what department the authors' are in. I'll resort to that, if necessary, but thought I'd throw this out here first)

Any thoughts/impressions appreciated.

P

(Just trying to decide if the research side of the house in ophtho is broad enough to satisfy the part of me interested in neuro-path! Clinically, well that's a no-brainer (pun not intended))

 

[Andrew_Doan]

At the bigger programs, there are people who do research on exactly what you're describing above. Look at some of the research coming out of Hopkins. There are many good avenues of reseach being pursued in the systems neuroscience department.


In regards to your specific question, I think you'll be more likely to find NEI funded research if you focus on the visual pathway, i.e. eye to visual cortex; hence, if you focus on patterning in the visual cortex and visual pathways, then your likelihood of funding from the NEI will be greater. If you're interested in neuroscience in general, then I would recommend pursuing neurology because I don't know why you would want to focus on ophthalmology if you're not going to do research on the visual pathway.

Also look at the NEI funding page for ideas of research being funded:

http://www.nei.nih.gov/funding/index.htm

 

[Primate]

I am interested in the "visual pathway" but have always felt that it was too narrowly defined. Coding of information may start in the retina, but it is far from clear where the trail ends. As we're such visual creatures, to think that the visual pathway stops at the occipital cortex is too limiting.

My interest in the "higher" parts of the brain is in how and where they code or interpret images, and I'm interested in how these areas are initially connected during development. Not that my lab would necessarily focus on these questions (I'll more likely stay with what I've been doing), but I'd wanted to get a feel for the flexibility available.

As for neurology. . . Diagnose and refer to PT. No thanks.

As always, thanks for the reference.

P

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by Primate
I am interested in the "visual pathway" but have always felt that it was too narrowly defined. Coding of information may start in the retina, but it is far from clear where the trail ends. As we're such visual creatures, to think that the visual pathway stops at the occipital cortex is too limiting.

My interest in the "higher" parts of the brain is in how and where they code or interpret images, and I'm interested in how these areas are initially connected during development. Not that my lab would necessarily focus on these questions (I'll more likely stay with what I've been doing), but I'd wanted to get a feel for the flexibility available.

As for neurology. . . Diagnose and refer to PT. No thanks.

As always, thanks for the reference.

P

I think there needs to be more research in the area that you're interested in. I misunderstood what you wanted to study. If your goal is to study the higher brain areas that process visual information, then this would still be considered under the visual pathway.