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Jonathan Erichsen

Professor Jonathan Erichsen

Professor of Visual Neuroscience

School of Optometry and Vision Sciences

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Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

Research interests

I have long-standing research interests in all aspects of the control of visuomotor behaviour, including eye movements, with the goal of achieving a better understanding of the interaction between sensory and motor mechanisms within the visual system.

One principal focus of my past work has been defining and stimulating the central near response pathways in the brain, including vergence and the pupillary light reflex, in order to better understand the interrelationship between accommodation and refractive development of the eye. This led to a growing interest in normal and abnormal eye movements in people (children as well as adults).

Nearly twenty years ago, I established the Cardiff Research Unit for Nystagmus (RUN) to conduct studies of eye movement disorders in people with infantile nystagmus in order to better understand the impact of the continuous oscillatory eye movements on their vision and everyday life. 

More recently, I founded the Eye Movement Experimental Research Group (EMERG) to reflect the expansion of our research into eye movement abnormalities of those with neurodegenerative conditions, such as Huntington’s disease, as well as others, such as young children at risk of schizophrenia,  or adults suffering from dystonia. 

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    1985

    • Tansley, K. and Erichsen, J. T. 1985. Vision. In: Campbell, B. and Lack, E. eds. A Dictionary of Birds. Calton: T & A D Poyser, pp. 623-629.

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    Research

    For most of the early part of my career, my focus has been on defining and stimulating the central near response pathways in the brain, including vergence and the pupillary light reflex, in order to better understand the interrelationship between accommodation and refractive development of the eye. The techniques employed included, stereotaxic surgery, immunohistochemistry, neural pathway tracing, and microstimulation.

    Over time, these studies led to a growing interest in tracking eye movement responses in typical adults, school age children, and babies. Nearly twenty years ago, I established the Cardiff Research Unit for Nystagmus (RUN) to conduct studies of eye movement disorders in people with infantile nystagmus in order to better understand the impact of the continuous oscillatory eye movements on their vision and everyday life. We are fortunate to have been able to recruit a large cohort of volunteers with this condition, and our experiments have demonstrated the effect of environmental influences, such as stress or visual demand, on the intensity of their oscillations. Importantly, however, our results demonstrate that the most commonly used measure of visual performance, visual acuity, is not significantly affected by changes in the eye movements of a given individual, suggesting the need for developing better outcome measures.

    More recently, I have founded the Eye Movement Experimental Research Group (EMERG) to reflect the expansion of our research into eye movement abnormalities of those with neurodegenerative conditions, such as Huntington’s disease, as well as others, such as children at risk of schizophrenia or adults suffering from dystonia. One study with colleagues in Psychology involved using gaze-contingent paradigms to explore the ability to train visual attention in older children with autism. We are also currently exploring the impact of eye movements on perception in patients who have undergone epilepsy surgery.

    My collaborations, both in the UK and internationally, have ranged from an assessment of nerve fibre layer damage in an experimental model of glaucoma to investigations of the role of the hippocampus in spatial navigation and visual discriminations. I was recently involved in leading a Leverhulme Trust funded interdisciplinary study with engineering colleagues to investigate the remarkable ability of homing pigeons to sense and orient with respect to the earth's magnetic field.

    In the past, our work has been supported by grants from the BBSRC, Leverhulme Trust and Wellcome Trust, and currently by both the College of Optometrists and nystagmus charities (Nystagmus Network and IN-vision). Our laboratories include state-of-the-art histological and neuroscience laboratories, a suite of videomicrographic image processing workstations, and several dedicated eye tracking facilities that include both non-invasive infra-red recording systems and large high-performance stimulus display systems.

     

    Teaching

    I deliver lectures in several different undergraduate modules, including Introductory Optometry, Binocular Vision & Neurophysiology, and Research in Optometry & Vision Science, for which I am also the module leader. In addition, I participate in practical sessions demonstrating prosections of head and neck anatomy for the Cells and System module.

    My teaching covers the following subject areas:

    • organisation, neuroanatomy & physiology of the retina and visual brain pathways
    • development of the visual system
    • vision agnosias
    • visual perception
    • characteristics and control of eye movements and their impact on vision
    • research and the scientific method

    Biography

    Education and professional qualifications

    • 1972:                 AB (First Class Honours in Biology)    Harvard University
    • 1979:                 DPhil (Zoology)                                    University of Oxford
    • 1979 - 1983:     National Eye Institute (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellowship, Stony Brook University, NY (USA)

    Honours and awards

    • 1972:              Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa
    • 1972:              NSF Postgraduate Studentship
    • 1972 - 1975:  Marshall Scholar
    • 1972 - 1979:  Danforth Foundation Fellow

    Professional memberships

    • Applied Vision Association (AVA)
    • Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB)

    Academic positions

    • 2014 - present:      Professor, School of Optometry & Vision  Sciences, Cardiff University
    • 2006 - 2014:         Head, Visual Neuroscience & Molecular Biology Research Group
    • 1995 - 2014:         Senior Lecturer,  School of Optometry & Vision  Sciences, Cardiff University
    • 1983 - 1996:         Research Assistant Professor, Dept. of Neurobiology & Behavior, Stony Brook University, NY (USA)
    • 1979 - 1983:         NEI Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Neurobiology & Behavior, Stony Brook University, NY (USA)

    Committees and reviewing

    • Lead, Visual Neuroscience
    • Director, Research Unit for Nystagmus (RUN)
    • Director, Eye Movement Experimental Research Group (EMERG)
    • Student Staff Panel
    • Extenuating Circumstances Committee
    • BSc Board of Studies
    • Neuroscience & Mental Health Research Institute Management Group

    Recent university committees (2000-2012)

    • Chair, University JBIOS Users' Group
    • Biological Standards Committee
    • CUBRIC Steering Group
    • EMRIC Management Group
    • BCNC

    Supervisions

    I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

    • Human Eye Movements
    • visual psychophysics and perception
    • Infantile Nystagmus
    • Neurodegenerative Disease
    • neuroanatomy of spatial memory

    Current supervision

    Onyeka Amiebenomo

    Onyeka Amiebenomo

    Research student

    Contact Details

    Email ErichsenJT@cardiff.ac.uk
    Telephone +44 29208 75656
    Campuses Optometry and Vision Sciences, Room Room 2.39, Maindy Road, Maindy Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ

    External profiles