Researchers in optometry, in the School of Health Professions, form the Eye and Vision Research Group, and lead much of the University’s research into the human visual system.
Scientists in the Ocular Biomechanics Research Laboratory (H. Buckhurst, P. Buckhurst, Oehring, Papadatou) investigate the eye as a living biomechanical structure in order to understand not only how the eye performs some of its basic functions, but also as a pathway to characterise how sight-threatening conditions manifest. The core team is composed of clinicians with a specific research interest in examining the cornea and sclera in vivo and ex vivo with modern imaging (including optical coherent tomography and MRI) and modelling techniques.
Scientists in the Ocular Accommodation Research Lab conduct investigations to measure the accommodative function using different techniques and instruments (Del Aguila-Carrasco, Szostek).
The Basic and Applied Visual Psychophysics Group utilise psychophysical methods, such as measuring detection/discrimination thresholds, adaption, and visual search, to study visual perception across a variety of functions. The research interests of this lab range from basic research to understand motion (Garcia Suarez, Joshi), shape and face perception (Schmidtmann), and peripheral vision (Artes).