UAB School of Optometry Awarded $2.1 Million Grant to Study How Brain Sees Through Retinal Damage

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has announced that Lawrence Sincich, Ph.D., professor at the UAB School of Optometry, has been awarded a $2.1 million research grant by the National Eye Institute to support a pioneering four-year research project titled, “Elementary Cone Photoreceptor Representation in Primary Visual Cortex.” The study aims to uncover how the brain interprets visual signals from individual cone photoreceptors, cells that convert light into electrical signals to enable vision. Using adaptive optics technology, the school advised, the research team will observe how neurons in the brain’s primary visual cortex respond to both clear and impaired visual input.