# Neural development of foveal vision

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $558,871

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Understanding how the brain processes what we see from the very center of our visual gaze (foveal vision) is
essential for maintaining healthy vision, including high spatial acuity vision, color vision, and visual attention.
Deficits of central vision lead to blindness as in the case of macular degeneration, or loss of depth perception
as in the case of lazy eye (amblyopia). Macaque monkeys have visual systems very similar to humans and
thus are an ideal animal model for studies of foveal vision. During the first few months of postnatal
development in the macaque monkey and first few years of life in the human, retinal photoreceptors undergo
an important migration to establish the adult foveal cone and rod distribution. Despite the importance of this
part of vision, there is very little known regarding cortical representation of the fovea during development.
Here, we investigate the relationship between postnatal retinal photoreceptor migration and changes in foveal
cortical representation in infant monkeys. Using a combination of in vivo retinal photoreceptor imaging and
cortical optical imaging and electrophysiological approaches, we aim to answer questions regarding the
relationship between retinal cone photoreceptor migration and changes in foveal cortical representation in the
first few months of postnatal development. Multiple developmental timepoints will be studied over the first 3
postnatal months, a period when foveal cone density can be mapped with adaptive optics. Paired retinal and
cortical investigation will be conducted and data correlated. Revelations regarding the mechanisms of cortical
plasticity during development will have great impact on understanding the development of central vision,
computational models of cortical development, and on understanding retinal and cortical bases of visual
developmental disorders which may lead to new approaches to treat neurological diseases like amblyopia and
improve capabilities of brain-machine interfaces for the treatment of blindness.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9858341
- **Project number:** 5R01EY029753-02
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Robert Mark Friedman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $558,871
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-01 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9858341

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9858341, Neural development of foveal vision (5R01EY029753-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9858341. Licensed CC0.

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