Thesis Cynthia FAURITE

Macular degeneration is the main cause of visual impairment in Western countries. It is manifested by the gradual appearance of a scotoma in the macula which causes central vision loss and considerably handicaps patients in their everyday life. The thesis is an interdisciplinary and multi-centric project (Toulouse / Grenoble) which aims at better understanding functional reorganization in patients following the onset of the scotoma.
By combining ophthalmological, psychophysical, and neuronal (fMRI) measurements, the thesis pursues two main objectives. The first objective is to characterize the cortical reorganizations which spontaneously occur in patients and how they modify some of their visuo-cognitive skills, in comparison with an age-matched control group whose central vision is masked by an artificial scotoma. The second objective is to test whether these cortical reorganizations can be reinforced by perceptual learning approaches, thereby opening the door to future rehabilitation strategies.

Supervisors :

• Carole PEYRIN - carole.peyrinuniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (carole[dot]peyrin[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)
• Benoit COTTEREAU -  benoit.cottereaucnrs.fr (benoit[dot]cottereau[at]cnrs[dot]fr)

Keywords : Psychophysique,Scene categorization,MRI,Visual cognition,Macular degeneration,