Q & A with Dr. Thanasis Panorgias
Dr. Panorgias has been a faculty member since 2014 and is an Associate Professor of Vision Sciences. Here, Dr. Panorgias talks about his latest areas of research and how they are influencing the field of optometry.
NECO: What is your area of research?
TP: My research interests revolve around visual neuroscience, and particularly the retina which is the first stage of visual information processing.
NECO: What are you currently working on?
TP: Currently I am working on a project that aims to combine recording the eye movements and the electrical signals that are being generated by the retina, called the electroretinogram. By doing so, we will be able to precisely present a visual stimulus on a very specific retinal location, hence increasing the spatial specificity of the test.
NECO: What inspired you to look into this area?
TP: The tests that are currently used for collecting the retinal signals have very poor stimulus localization. The continuous movement of the eye makes it very difficult to correlate the neuronal function with the retinal structure that we can obtain with various imaging modalities at very high spatial resolution.
NECO: What impact will your research have on optometry?
TP: With the new technology that we are currently developing we aim to achieve for the first time a very precise correlation between retinal function and structure. This will allow for better monitoring of both disease processes and the effect of treatments on the retinal neurons.
