# Development of translational visual quality of life outcomes and non-invasive rehabilitation of visual loss

> **NIH VA I21** · IOWA CITY VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of injury among Veterans; an estimated 20% of recent Veterans
have experienced some form of TBI. Veterans can also acquire non-service related TBIs, with over 2 million
Americans having received some form of TBI. Many recent injuries have come via exposures to blast from
improvised explosive devices. Blast explosions have affected service members from all American military
engagements, even without overt or extensive blast exposure. Individuals exposed to TBI may experience
ailments such as headache and learning deficits and may be at increased risk for long-term maladies such as
neurodegenerative or psychiatric diseases Blast-mediated TBI has also caused visual dysfunction among
affected individuals. Visual dysfunction produced by TBI includes changes in light sensitivity, ocular motility
dysfunction, optic neuropathy and retinopathy, and homonymous visual field loss from cortical damage. Even
with mild TBI, patients frequently report visual difficulties and a decreased visual quality of life that is not
detected by routine eye exams. These symptoms likely represent subclinical disease in the eye and brain,
which is underreported, and may progress to more severe visual deficits. While both visual and cognitive
deficits manifest after blast exposure, the relationship between damage in the retina and the brain has not
been described, and it is uncertain if visual damage after blast injury is a result of direct retinal injury, optic
nerve injury, or retrograde degeneration due to neuron loss in visual processing centers of the brain.
Establishing this relationship is critical to developing rehabilitative therapies in order to directly target the
affected neurons. Furthermore, there has been difficulty modeling and testing the complexity of human vision
and visual-cognitive relationships in laboratory models after blast exposure.
This proposal addresses two needs that are impediments to improving Veterans’ quality of life through
rehabilitation. The first is the lack of visual and visual-cognitive testing outcomes in pre-clinical rodent models
that accurately reflect human visual processing. The outcomes of such animal models can also serve as
translational indicators that disease states diminish the quality of life or that treatments can improve quality of
life. Our proposal seeks to provide just such a pre-clinical rodent model. The second is lack of noninvasive,
non-pharmacologic rehabilitation of visual function. Our proposal will address this gap by determining if
transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can leverage endogenous neuronal plasticity to rehabilitate visual
function.
Our central hypotheses are first that blast-mediated TBI results in synaptic dysregulation which can impair the
ability of neurons to function efficiently. Second, we hypothesize that tDCS applied during visual rehabilitation
therapy will lead to improved visual outcomes and thus improved visual-cognitive relationsh...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10149841
- **Project number:** 5I21RX003325-02
- **Recipient organization:** IOWA CITY VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthew M. Harper
- **Activity code:** I21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2022-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10149841

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10149841, Development of translational visual quality of life outcomes and non-invasive rehabilitation of visual loss (5I21RX003325-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10149841. Licensed CC0.

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