Innovative And Effective Approaches To Probe Plasticity In The Adult Visual System

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editors

Kevin Chan

New York University Grossman School of Medicine

Dr. Chan is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Radiology, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. He completed his doctoral studies in biomedical engineering at The University of Hong Kong, focusing on imaging of the visual system, and was awarded the Li Ka Shing Prize for best PhD thesis. Dr. Chan is the director of the Neuroimaging and Visual Science Laboratory, which concentrates on developing and applying new, non-invasive methods for imaging degeneration, development, protection, plasticity, and regeneration in the visual system in both humans and experimental animal models. His team aims to tackle irreversible blindness by better understanding the structural, metabolic, and functional interactions among the eye, the brain, and behavior in health and disease with or without neuromodulation, in order to guide vision preservation and restoration.

Jennifer Sun

University College London

Dr. Sun is an Assistant Professor at the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, heading the Visual Plasticity Lab established in 2021. Before joining UCL, Dr. Sun obtained her PhD degree from the University of Southern California, studying visual computation and sensory cortical development. She completed her postdoc works at UCSF, elucidating the structural and functional basis of neuroplasticity in developing and adult brains. With a focus on the circuit mechanisms of neuroplasticity in mature visual systems, her lab uses a combination of genetic, physiological, and computational approaches, combined with state-of-the-art imaging techniques to probe how plasticity is regulated in the local circuit as well as crosstalk between different brain regions.

Collection Overview

In the classical literature, plasticity is limited to the developing brain during a specific time window when the brain circuit is most sensitive to changes from external cues. Nowadays, thanks to advanced techniques in characterizing, quantifying, and perturbing the brain circuits, mounting evidence demonstrates that the adult brain still retains some levels of plasticity in terms of structural and functional connectivity changes. Within the visual system, such adult plasticity can happen in multiple regions, from the retina to the thalamus to higher visual cortices.

Using animal models and human subjects, researchers reveal multiple mechanisms at the molecular, cellular, and circuit levels that visual systems employ to regulate plasticity. These findings provide critical insights into novel paradigms or therapeutic agents for visual rehabilitation, boosting visual perceptual learning, and improving visual recovery from injury and diseases.

In this Methods Collection, we invite researchers to effectively demonstrate their innovative approaches to studying plasticity in the adult visual system, from the retina to the brain. Topics may include but are not limited to:

(1) detailed state-of-the-art protocols and procedures currently in use to probe visual plasticity in the adult brain, using both animal models and human subjects; and

(2) novel strategies to effectively enhance adult plasticity in clinical and experimental settings, which might have the potential to translate into field applications.

With the knowledge and techniques shared in this collection, we hope to inspire a new generation of experimental and clinical researchers to design mechanism-based therapeutics to enhance visual plasticity in the adult brain