SUNY Optometry’s Dr. Robert McPeek and Stony Brook University’s Dr. Greg Zelinsky are collaborating to ascertain what happens in a normal brain when a person searches his or her environment for an object. The findings may help patients who have suffered brain damage. “We’re trying to understand how eye movements work in the normal system first,” says Dr. McPeek, an associate professor of biological sciences. “Once we understand the normal system, we can start to think about ways to help people who have damage.” The researchers received seed money from the SUNY Networks of Excellence to focus on the part of the brain responsible for eye movement – the superior colliculus – and create a model that will better predict where activity should occur in the brain while one searches a visually complex scene for an object. Dr. Zelinsky’s model will use existing knowledge about the neurophysiology of “If you’re out there in the world there are a million things you could choose to look at, but somehow our eye movements are very precise.” – DR. ROBERT MCPEEK the superior colliculus to predict the degree and distribution of activity. The predictions will be tested by Dr. McPeek, whose neuroscience laboratory will make the neural recordings. 22 a Institutional Grant Activity | FY 2016 4,000,000 3,500,000 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 500,000 0 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 GRANT ACTIVITY Dr. Robert McPeek How Do Eye Movements Work?
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