Chief Supervisor

Dr PAN Feng

Project Title

Synopsis

Myopia (near-sightedness) is the most common eye disorder and the leading cause of visual disability in the world. Low-dose atropine is common in pharmacological options for myopia. Atropine has been shown to have a positive effect in reducing the elongation of axial length in myopic eyes, but the exact mechanism of the suppressive effect of atropine is unknown.

The retinal ganglion cell is a type of neuron located near the inner surface (the ganglion cell layer) of the retina of the eye, forming numerous parallel visual channels which deliver substantially different transforms of visual information to the various central targets they innervate.

Our aim is to examine how the low-dose atropine affects the temporal firing characteristics of populations of RGCs and how the low-dose atropine affects the firing patterns of populations of RGCs with focused/defocused images. Such change in the population of RGC activities may serve as an early step in myopia development in the retina.