Understanding How the Brain Processes Vision

Professor of Biomedical Engineering Tara Alvarez, in collaboration with her colleagues and students, uses an array of technologies to investigate vision dysfunction and develop corrective therapeutic interventions. The technologies employed by her team include eye-movement and accommodation recording with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Alvarez’s research investigates how the brain moves the eyes to acquire visual information to help populations ranging from children with vision dysfunction to adults with traumatic brain injury. Patient symptoms include blurry vision, double vision and visual fatigue, all of which negatively impact activities of daily living.

NJIT faculty are proud to engage students in research at every level, and here Alvarez is joined by Adam Bindas ’17 and Chang Yaramothu ’13. Bindas, a chemical engineering major, is a volunteer for vision tests conducted by Alvarez. Yaramothu, a master’s candidate in biomedical engineering, is wearing a virtual reality headset that Alvarez is using to study how specially designed video games for children and adults can improve the effectiveness of vision therapy.

http://biomedical.njit.edu