Where have we got to in understanding development of the visual brain in infants and children?

Professor Janette Atkinson

Professor of Psychology and Co Director of The Visual Development Unit, University College London and the University of Oxford.

The X1th meeting of the Child Vision Research Society was held at University College London from the 25th - 27th June 2007. The meeting, which is held every two years, provides an opportunity for exchanging new ideas and findings between basic scientists and clinicians concerned with vision in infants and children.

Professor Janette Atkinson gave the Keynote lecture for the "Childhood Visual Impairment" session, with her lecture entitled "Where have we got to in understanding development of the visual brain in infants and children? ". CRS were proud to sponser this fascinating lecture, which is available to view below with slides and audio.

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Abstract

Thirty years ago the field of infant vision took off with measures of acuity, contrast sensitivity, refraction and binocular function in the first year of life. Alistair Fielder was among the first leading paediatric ophthalmologists who recognised the possibilities of partnership with vision sciences using these advantages to tackle children’s visual disorders, notably amblyopia and strabismus.

Our own first contributions were in showing the normal development of acuity, contrast sensitivity and cortical binocularity by converging methods of preferential looking and electrophysiological VEP/VERP measures. We also adopted and developed photorefraction and videorefraction, charting the normal development of accommodation and astigmatism, and to demonstrate thought large scale population infant screening programmes, of over 8000 9 month olds, that we could detect and correct the refractive conditions  that placed children at high risk of strabismus and amblyopia.

However, a large portion of visual impairment in children is now associated with neurological problems. Since our work in the 70’s, we have pursued neurobiological models of visual development, linking the development of sensory vision to the brain processes that use vision for cognitive, spatial and visuomotor development. Our work has delineated the visual cortical modules (for orientation, motion and binocular disparity) which become functional in an orderly sequence in the first months of life, studied cortical mechanisms of visual attention, and chartered the later development of the two main cortical streams – the ventral stream for recognition of shapes, objects and faces, and the dorsal stream for spatial relationships, neurological visual problems, ranging from ‘cortical blindness’ to subtle problems such as dyslexia and ADHD.  It also offers visual ‘early surrogate outcome measures’ where the early development of vision can serve to indicate later neurological outcome across a broad range. We have developed a whole battery of tests of functional vision from birth to 6 years, the ABCDEFV (A (Atkinson) Battery of Child Development for Examining Functional Vision) to follow up children with perinatal brain damage, children at-risk because of very premature birth, and the broader sequelae of early refractive error. We have extended our focus on basic visual function, to include age-appropriate methods of investigating visuo-spatial cognition, the components of attention, and visuomotor control.

The neurobiological approach which links brain mechanisms of vision, cognition, attention and action is relevant to ophthalmological as well as neurological disorders. Follow-up of our refractive screening population has shown that infant hyperopia is associated with subtle deficits or delays in visuo-cognitive, motor and attentional functions up to age 6. Conversely, children with all neurodevelopmental problems have a high incidence of refractive error, strabismus, and amblyopia. For both typically developing children and clinical applications, an approach is needed which unites an understanding of sensory, cognitive and motor development, in a shared enterprise of vision neuroscientists, ophthalmologists, optometrists, paediatric neurologists, neuro- and educations psychologists and educationalists.

Professor Janette Atkinson

Professor Janette Atkinson is Co Director of the Visual Development Unit at the Department of Psychology, University College London and the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford , alongside Professor Oliver Braddick.

Janette is Professor of Psychology at University College London and Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. She is also UCL Pro-Provost (North America)  and UCL Co-ordinator for ATHENA SWAN (careers for women in SET - Science, Engineering and Technology).

Research Interests

Developmental visual neuroscience; models of normal and abnormal development of human vision; neuropsychology of visuocognitive and spatial problems in children; Williams Syndrome; visual development in term/premature 'high risk' infants; visual seculae of prematurity; neonatal structural MRI/fMRI; infant vision screening; development of visual attention and executive function.

Contact Professor Atkinson as j.atkinson@ucl.ac.uk

Visual Development Unit Website: http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/vdu

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