Basic Science

Faculty

Dr. J. Matsubara, Professor & Division Head 
Dr. J. Barton, Professor 
Dr. M Cynader, Professor 
Dr. R. Douglas, Associate Professor 
Dr. D. Giaschi, Professor 
Dr. C. Gregory-Evans, Professor
Dr. R. Molday, Professor 
Dr. O. Moritz, Associate Professor
Dr. I. Oruc, Associate Professor
Dr. C. Shaw, Professor
Dr. M. Spering, Assistant Professor
Dr. N. V. Swindale, Professor

Overview

The major research themes are proliferative retinal diseases, degenerative retinal diseases, glaucoma, visual and developmental neurosciences and visual cortical function.

Publications

Dr. J. Barton’s Lab

Dalrymple KA, Bischof W, Cameron D, Barton JJS, Kingstone A. Experiencing simultanagnosia through windowed viewing of complex social scenes. Brain Res 2011; 1367: 265-77.

Abegg M, Manoach DS, Barton JJS. Knowing the future: partial foreknowledge effects on the programming of prosaccades and antisaccades. Vision Res 2011; 51: 215-21.

Lee AKC, Hämäläinen MS, Dyckman KA, Barton JJ, Manoach DS. Saccadic preparation in frontal eye field is modulated by distinct trial history effects as revealed by magnetoencephalography. Cerebral Cortex 2011; 21: 245-53.

Oruç I, Guo XM, Barton JJS. Gender in facial representations: a contrast-based study of adaptation within and between the sexes. PLoSONE 2011; 6: e16251.

Pfeffer G, Abegg M, Vertinsky AT, Ceccherini I, Caroli F, Barton JJS. The ocular motor features of adult-onset Alexander disease: a case and review of the literature. J Neuroophthalmol 2011; 31: 155-9.

Dalrymple KA, Birmingham E, Bischof W, Barton JJS, Kingstone A. Opening a window on attention: Documenting and simulating recovery from simultanagnosia . Cortex 2011; 47: 787-99.

Foulsham T, Barton JJS, Kingstone A, Dewhurst R, Underwood G. Modeling eye movements in visual agnosia with a saliency map approach: bottom-up guidance or top-down strategy? Neural Networks 2011; 24: 665-77.

Simpson S, Abegg M, Barton JJS. Rapid adaptation of visual search in simulated hemianopia. Cerebral Cortex 2011; 21: 1593-601.

Dalrymple KA, Oruç I, Duchaine B, Fox CJ, Iaria G, Handy TC, Barton JJS. The neuroanatomic basis of the face-selective N170 in acquired prosopagnosia: a combined ERP/fMRI study. Neuropsychologia2011; 49: 2553-63.

Dr. R. Douglas’s Lab

Tschetter WW, Douglas RM, Prusky GT. (2011) Experience-induced interocular plasticity of vision in infancy. Front Syst Neurosci. 2011; 5:44.

Jacobs A, Fridman G, Douglas R, Alam N, Latham P, Prusky P, Nirenberg S, (2009)  Ruling out and ruling in neural codes.  Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 106: 5936-41.

Prusky GT, Silver BD, Tschetter WW, Alam NM, Douglas RM. (2008) Experience-dependent plasticity from eye opening enables lasting, visual cortex-dependent enhancement of motion vision. J Neurosci. 28(39):9817-27.

McGill TJ, Lund RD, Douglas RM, Wang S, Lu B, Silver BD, Secretan MR, Arthur JN, Prusky GT. Syngeneic Schwann cell transplantation preserves vision in RCS rat without immunosuppression. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2007 Apr;48(4):1906-12.

Prusky GT, Alam NM, Douglas RM. Enhancement of vision by monocular deprivation in adult mice. J Neurosci. 2006 Nov 8;26(45):11554-61.

Douglas RM, Neve A, Quittenbaum JP, Alam NM, Prusky GT. Perception of visual motion coherence by rats and mice. Vision Res. 2006 Sep;46(18):2842-7.

Dr. D. Giaschi’s Lab

Boden C, Giaschi D (2009) The role of low-spatial frequencies in lexical decision and masked priming. Brain and Cognition 69:580-91

Boden C, Giaschi D (2007) M-stream deficits and reading-related visual processes in developmental dyslexia. Psychological Bulletin 133:346-66

Giaschi D, Zwicker A, Au Young S, Bjornson B (2007) The role of cortical area V5/MT+ in speed-tuned directional anisotropies in global motion perception. Vision Research 47:887-98

Ho C, Giaschi D (2009) Low- and high-level motion perception deficits in anisometropic and strabismic amblyopia: evidence from fMRI. Vision Research 49: 2891-901

Lanyon L, Giaschi D, Au Young S, Fitzpatrick K, Diao L, Bjornson B, Barton J (2009) Combined functional MRI & diffusion tensor imaging analysis of visual motion pathways. Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology 29:96-103

Hayward J , Truong G , Partanen M , Giaschi D. (2011) Effects of speed, age and amblyopia on the perception of motion-defined form. Vision Research 51:2216-23

Dr. C. Gregory-Evans’ Lab

Gregory-Evans CY, Moosajee M, Shan X, Gregory-Evans K. Gene-specific differential response to anti-apoptotic therapies in zebrafish models of ocular coloboma. Mol Vis. 2011;17: 1473-1484.

Gregory-Evans K, Cheong-Leen R, George SM, Xie J, Moosajee M, Colapinto P, Gregory-Evans CY. Non-invasive anterior segment and posterior segment optical coherence tomography and phenotypic characterization of aniridia. Can J Ophthalmol . 2011;46:337-44.

Xu, XL, Fang Y, Lee TC, Forrest D, Gregory-Evans CY , Almeida D, Liu A, Jhanwar SC, Abramson DH, and Cobrinik D. Retinoblastoma has the properties of a cone precursor tumor and depends upon cone-specific MDM2 signaling. Cell 2009;137:1018-31.

Moosajee M, Gregory-Evans K, Ellis CD, Seabra MC, Gregory-Evans CY. Translational bypass of nonsense mutations in zebrafish rep1 pax2.1 and lamb1 highlights a viable therapeutic option for untreatable genetic eye disease. Hum Mol Genet. 2008;17:3987-4000.

Gregory-Evans CY , Vieira H, Dalton R, Adams GGW, Salt A and Gregory-Evans K. Ocular coloboma and high myopia with Hirschsprung disease associated with a novel ZFHX1B missense mutation and trisomy 21. Am J Med Genet 2004;131A:86-90.

Bibb LC, Holt JKL, Tarttelin EE, Hodges MD, Gregory-Evans K, Lucas RJ, Sowden JC, Gregory-Evans CY . Temporal and spatial expression patterns of the CRX gene and its downstream targets. Critical differences during human and mouse eye development. Hum Mol Genet . 2001;10:1571-1579.

Freund CL, Gregory-Evans CY, Furukawa T, Papaioannou M, Looser J, Ploder L, Bellingham J, Ng D, Herbrick J-AS, Duncan A, Scherer SW, Tsui L-C, Loutradis-Anagnostou A, Cepko CL, Jacobson SG, Bhattacharya SS, McInnes RR. Cone-rod dystrophy due to mutations in a novel photoreceptor-specific homeobox gene ( CRX ) required for maintenance of the mammalian photoreceptor. Cell1997;91:543-553.

Gregory CY , Evans K, Wijesuriya SD, Kermani S, Jay MR, Plant C, Cox N, Bird AC and Bhattacharya SS. The gene responsible for autosomal dominant Doyne’s honeycomb retinal dystrophy ( DHRD ) maps to chromosome 2p16. Hum Mol Genet. 1996;5:1055-1059.

Dr. J. Matsubara’s Lab

Lei H. Rheaume MA, Cui JZ, Mukai S, Maberley D, Samad A, Matsubara JA, Kazlauskas A. A Novel Function of p53: A Gatekeeper of Retinal Detachment.Am J Path in press.

Jiang K, To E, Cui JZ, Cao S, Gao W, Matsubara JA. Drusen and Pro-inflammatory Mediators in the Post-Mortem Human Eye. J Clin Exp Ophthal 2011. Vol 3 Issue1.

JA Matsubara and JD Boyd. Overview of the Central Visual Pathways. Adler’s 11th edition of Physiology of the Eye. 2011

JD Boyd and JA Matsubara . Projections to and Processing in Extrastriate Visual Cortex. Adler’s 11 th edition of Physiology of the Eye. 2011

Dengler M, Saatchi K, Dailey JP, Matsubara J , Mikelberg FS, Hafeli UO, Yeung SN. Targeted Delivery of Magnetic Cobalt Nanoparticles to the Eye Following Systemic Administration. 8th International Conference on the Scientific and Clinical Applications of Magnetic Carriers. Ed Hafeli, Schutt and Zhorowski

Lei H, Velez G, Cui J , Samad A, Maberley D, Matsubara J , Kazlauskas A. N-acetylcysteine Suppresses Retinal Detachment in an Experimental Model of Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy. Am J of Pathol. 2010. 177(1): 132-40

Kurji K , Cui J , Lin T , Harriman D , Prasad S, Kojic L, Matsubara J. Microarray analysis identifies changes in inflammatory gene expression in response to amyloid-beta stimulation of cultured human retinal pigment epithelial cells. Invest Ophthal Vis Sci 2010. 51(2): 1151-63.

Lam D, Jim J, To E , Rasmussen C, Kaufman PL , Matsubara J . Astrocyte and microglial activation in the lateral geniculate nucleus and visual cortex of glaucomatous and optic nerve transected primates. Molecular Vision 2009 15:2217-29.

Cui JZ, Wang XF, Hsu L , Matsubara JA. Inflammation induced by photocoagulation laser is minimized by copper chelators. Lasers Med Sci; 2009 Jul 24(4) 653-7.

Cui J, Maberley D, Samad A, Ma P, Ning A, Matsubara JA, Bacui P. Expression of integrins on human choroidal neovascular membranes. J Ocul Bio Dis Inform 2009; 2:12-19.

Cui J, Lei H, Samad A, Basavanthappa S, Maberley D, Matsubara J, Kazlauskas A. PDGF Receptors Are Activated in Human Epiretinal Membranes. Exp Eye Res 2009. 88(3):438-44.

Tsai GY , Cui JZ , Syed H , Xia Z, Ozerdem U, McNeill JH , Matsubara JA. Effect of N-acetylcysteine on the early expression of inflammatory markers in the retina and plasma of diabetic rats. Clin Experiment Ophthalmol 2009. 37(2):223-31.

Seth A, Cui J, To E , Kwee M, Matsubara J . Complement-associated deposits in the human retina. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2008. 49(2):743-50.

Ning A , Cui JZ , To E , Hsiao Ashe K, Matsubara JA . Amyloid Beta Deposits Lead to Retinal Degeneration in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer Disease. Invest Ophthal Vis Sci 2008. 49(11):5136-43.

Dr. R. Molday’s Lab

Kwok, M.C.M, Holopainen, J.M., Molday, L.L., Foster, L.J., and Molday, R.S. Proteomics of Photoreceptor Outer Segments Identifies a Subset of SNARE and Rab Proteins Implicated in Membrane Vesicle Trafficking and Fusion   Mol. Cell Proteomics   7:1053-66 (2008).

Zhong M, Molday LL, Molday RS   Role of the C-terminus of the photoreceptor ABCA4 transporter in protein folding, function and retinal degenerative diseases. J.Biol. Chem . 284: 3640-9 (2009).

Molday, R.S., Zhong, M. and Quazi, F. The Role of the Photoreceptor ABC Transporter ABCA4 in Lipid Transport and Stargardt Macular Degeneration Biochim. Biophys. Acta . 1791:573-583 (2009).

Coleman JA, Kwok MC, Molday RS. Localization, purification, and functional reconstitution of the P4-ATPase Atp8a2, a phosphatidylserine flippase in photoreceptor disc membranes. J Biol Chem . 284:32670-9 (2009).

Holopainen, J.M., Cheng, C.L., Molday, L.L., Johal, G., Coleman, J., Dyka, F., Hii, T., Ahn, J., Molday, R.S.   Interaction and localization of the Retinitis Pigmentosa Protein RP2 and NSF in Retinal Photoreceptor Cells Biochemistry   49:7439-47 (2010).

Molday RS, Zhang K. Defective lipid transport and biosynthesis in recessive and dominant Stargardt macular degeneration. Prog Lip id Res . 49:476-92. (2010).

Azadi, S., Molday, L.L., Molday, R.S . RD3, the protein associated with Leber Congenital Amaurosis is Required for Guanylate Cyclase Trafficking in Photoreceptor Cells .   Proc. Natl Acad Sci. U.S.A . 107:21158-63   (2010).

Coleman, JA and Molday, R.S . Critical   Role of the β-subunit CDC50A in the Stable Expression, Assembly, Subcellular localization, and Lipid Transport Activity of the P4-ATPASE ATP8A2   J. Biol. Chem .286:17205-17216   (2011).

Dr. O. Moritz’s Lab

Targeting of mouse guanylate cyclase 1 (Gucy2e) to Xenopus laevis rod outer segments. Karan S, Tam BM, Moritz OL, Baehr W.Vision Res. 2011 Sep 12. [Epub ahead of print]

In situ visualization of protein interactions in sensory neurons: glutamic acid-rich roteins (GARPs) play differential roles for photoreceptor outer segment scaffolding. Ritter LM, Khattree N, Tam B, Moritz OL, Schmitz F, Goldberg AF. J Neurosci. 2011 Aug 3;31(31):11231-43.

Recent insights into the mechanisms underlying light-dependent retinal degeneration from X. laevis models of retinitis pigmentosa. Moritz OL, Tam BM. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2010;664:509-15.

The role of rhodopsin glycosylation in protein folding, trafficking, and light-sensitive retinal degeneration. Tam BM, Moritz OL. J Neurosci. 2009 Dec 2;29(48):15145-54.

The dependence of retinal degeneration caused by the rhodopsin P23H mutation on light exposure and vitamin a deprivation.Tam BM, Qazalbash A, Lee HC, Moritz OL. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2010 Mar;51(3):1327-34. Epub 2009 Nov 20.

Fourier domain optical coherence tomography as a noninvasive means for in vivo detection of retinal degeneration in Xenopus laevis tadpoles. Lee DC, Xu J, Sarunic MV, Moritz OL. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2010 Feb;51(2):1066-70. Epub 2009 Sep 9.

Ciliary targeting motif VxPx directs assembly of a trafficking module through Arf4. Mazelova J, Astuto-Gribble L, Inoue H, Tam BM, Schonteich E, Prekeris R, Moritz OL, Randazzo PA, Deretic D.EMBO J. 2009 Feb 4;28(3):183-92. Epub 2009 Jan 15.

CRX controls retinal expression of the X-linked juvenile retinoschisis (RS1) gene. Langmann T, Lai CC, Weigelt K, Tam BM, Warneke-Wittstock R, Moritz OL, Weber BH. Nucleic Acids Res. 2008 Nov;36(20):6523-34. Epub 2008 Oct 16.

Controlled rod cell ablation in transgenic Xenopus laevis. Hamm LM, Tam BM, Moritz OL. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2009 Feb;50(2):885-92. Epub 2008 Oct 3.

Dark rearing rescues P23H rhodopsin-induced retinal degeneration in a transgenic Xenopus laevis model of retinitis pigmentosa: a chromophore-dependent mechanism characterized by production of N-terminally truncated mutant rhodopsin. Tam BM, Moritz OL. J Neurosci. 2007 Aug 22;27(34):9043-53.

Characterization of rhodopsin P23H-induced retinal degeneration in a Xenopus laevis model of retinitis pigmentosa. Tam BM, Moritz OL. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2006 Aug;47(8):3234-41.

Mislocalized rhodopsin does not require activation to cause retinal degeneration and neurite outgrowth in Xenopus laevis. Tam BM, Xie G, Oprian DD, Moritz OL. J Neurosci. 2006 Jan 4;26(1):203-9.

Dr. I. Oruc

Delavari, P., Ozturan, G., Yilmaz, O, Oruc, I. (2023). Artificial intelligence, explainability, and the scientific method: A proof-of-concept study on novel retinal biomarker discovery. PNAS Nexus, pgad290.

Berk, A., Ozturan, G., Delavari, P., Maberley, D., Yilmaz, O., Oruc, I. (2023). Learning from small data: Classifying sex from retinal images via deep learning. PLOS One 18(8), e0289211.

Kamensek, T. Susilo, T., Iarocci, G., Oruc, I. (2023). Are people with autism prosopagnosic? Autism Research (accepted).

Kazemian, A., Oruc, I. Barton, J. (2022). A deep learning approach to studying the eye movements of prosopagnosic subjects. (submitted)

Mousavi, M., Oruc, I. (2020). Size effects in the recognition of blurry faces. Perception, 49(2): 222-231.

Mousavi, M., Oruc, I. (2020). Tuning of face expertise with a racially heterogeneous face-diet. Visual Cognition, DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2020.1836696

Oruc, I., Shafai, F., Murthy, S., Lages, P. & Ton, T. (2019). The adult face-diet: A naturalistic observation study. Vision Research, 157: 222-229

Oruc, I., Balas, B., Landy, M.S. (2019). Face perception: A brief journey through recent discoveries and current directions. Vision Research, 157: 1-9

Oruc, I., Shafai, F., Iarocci, G. (2018). Link between facial identity and expression abilities suggestive of origins of face impairments in autism: support for the social motivation hypothesis. Psychological Science, 29(11): 1859-1867.

Shafai, F., Oruc, I. (2018). Qualitatively similar processing for own- and other-race faces: Evidence from efficiency and equivalent input noise. Vision Research, 143: 58-65.

Albanico, A., Furubacke, A., Barton, J., Oruc, I. (2018). Perceptual efficiency and the inversion effect for faces, words and houses. Vision Research, 153: 91-97.

Shafai, F., Armstrong, K., Iarocci, G., Oruc, I. (2015). Visual orientation processing in autism spectrum disorder: no sign of enhanced early cortical function. Journal of Vision, 15(15):18, 1–15.

Dr. C. Shaw’s Lab

Tomljenovic L and Shaw CA. Does an elevated body burden from vaccine aluminum adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? J Inorg Chem DOI: 10.1016/J.Jinorgbio.2011. 08.008. (2011).

Tomljenovic L and Shaw CA. Aluminum vaccine adjuvants: Are they safe? Current Medicinal Chemistry . 18:2630 – 2637 (2011).

Panov A, Kubalik N, Brooks BR, and Shaw CA. In vitro effects of cholesterol b-D-glucoside, cholesterol and cycad glucosides on respiration and reactive oxygen species generation in brain mitochondria. J. Membrane Biol DOI 10:1007/s00232- 10-9307-7. (2010).

Marler TE, Snyder LR, and Shaw CA. Cycas micronesica (Cycadales) plants devoid of endophytic cyanobacteria increase in b-methylamino-L-alanine. Toxicon . 56: 563-568. (2010).

Shen W-B, McDowell KA, Siebert AA, Clark SM, Dugger NV, Valentino KM, Jinnah A, Sztalryd C, Fishman PS, Shaw CA, Jafri MS, and Yarowsky PJ. Environmental neurotoxin-induced progressive model of parkinsonism in rats. Annals of Neurology . 68(1):70-80 (2010).

Marler TE, and Shaw CA. distribution of free and glycosylates sterols within Cycas Micronesia plants. Scientia Horticulturae. DOI.1016/j.scienta.2009.11009 . (2009)

Dr. M. Spering’s Lab

Spering, M., Dias, E.C., Sanchez, J.L., Sch�tz, A.C., & Javitt, D.C. (2013). Efference copy failure during smooth pursuit eye movements in schizophrenia. J. Neurosci. 33:11779-11787.

Ke, S.R., Lam, J., Pai, D.K., & Spering, M. (2013). Directional asymmetries in human smooth pursuit eye movements. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 54:4409-4421.

Spering, M. & Carrasco, M. (2012). Similar effects of feature-based attention on motion perception and pursuit eye movements at different levels of awareness. J. Neurosci. 32:7594-7601.

Spering M. and Montagnini A. (2011). Do we track what we see? Evidence for common and independent processing of motion information for perception and smooth pursuit eye movements. Vision Res. 51:836-852.

Spering M., Pomplun M. and Carrasco M. (2011). Tracking without perceiving: A dissociation between motion perception and eye movements. Psychol. Sci. 22:216-225.

Spering M., Schütz A.C., Braun D.I. and Gegenfurtner K.R. (2011). Keep your eyes on the ball: Pursuit eye movements enhance the prediction of visual motion. J. Neurophysiol. 105:1756-1767.

Spering M. and Gegenfurtner K.R. (2008). Contextual effects on motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements. Brain Res. 1225:76-85.

Spering M., Montagnini A. and Gegenfurtner, K.R. (2008). Competition between color and luminance in target selection for pursuit and saccadic eye movements. J. Vision 8:1-19.

Spering M. and Gegenfurtner K.R. (2007a). Contextual effects on smooth pursuit eye movements. J. Neurophysiol. 97:1353-1367.

Spering M. and Gegenfurtner K.R. (2007b). Contrast and assimilation in motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements. J. Neurophysiol. 98:1355-1363.

Dr. N. Swindale’s Lab

Godfrey, KB and Swindale, NV (2007) Retinal wave behaviour through activity dependent refractory periods.PLoS Computational Biology (11), 1 – 13.

Swindale, NV (2007) A model for the thick, thin and pale stripe organization of primate V2. Network: Computation in Neural Systems 18 , 327-342.

Swindale, N.V. (2008) Feedback Decoding of Spatially Structured Population Activity in Cortical Maps.Neural Computation 20 , 176-204

Spacek, M, Blanche, T, Swindale N (2009) Python for large-scale electrophysiology. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics (9), 1 – 10.

Godfrey, KB, Eglen SJ and Swindale, NV (2009) A multi-component model of the developing retinocollicular pathway incorporating axonal and synaptic growth.” PLoS Comput Biol. Dec ;5 (12):e1000600, 1 – 22.