Sight loss research is helping us understand not only what happens in the eyes, but what happens in the brain. And that could change what is possible for children living with cerebral visual impairment (CVI).
When we think about sight loss, we often think about problems with the eyes, but not all vision loss starts there. For children with cerebral visual impairment (CVI), the challenge can be in the brain’s ability to process and interpret the visual information coming from the eyes. CVI is usually linked to neurological damage or differences in how parts of the brain develop.
For researcher Jaclyn Ferraro, this is where an important question begins: what does the world look like for a child with CVI - and how can we make that world easier to navigate?
Jaclyn is a PhD researcher at Durham University, working in Associated Professor Kathleen Vancleef’s lab. Her research, funded by Fight for Sight, is exploring one particularly important challenge: cluttered environments. It is research that brings science closer to everyday life, and shows why investing in sight loss research matters.
When the world becomes too much to process
For many of us, a busy room is simply a busy room; we can look around and quickly understand what we are seeing. We recognise the room, pick out the things we need and ignore the rest.
For some children with CVI, the brain cannot process visual information in the same way.
Jaclyn explains that 80% of people with CVI report difficulties with clutter, while 90% of children experience visual fatigue. This means that everyday environments can demand enormous amounts of mental effort.
Imagine walking into a kitchen. You might immediately see the worktops, cupboards, kettle, fridge and everything else around you as part of one familiar space. For someone with CVI they may experience one of two things:
Apperceptive agnosia – This is where different features of an object may not come together easily. Colours, lines and shapes can be perceived, but recognising the complete object can be much harder.
Simultanagnosia – Where the person may only be able to take in one object at a time, almost as though their attention is a spotlight moving around the room.
Image courtesy of CVI Scotland.
The result can be exhausting and it can make ordinary places - a classroom, bedroom, kitchen or café - feel quite overwhelming and very hard to navigate.
This is why Jaclyn’s research matters; she is not simply asking how vision works in a laboratory. She is asking how visual processing affects real lives, real environments and everyday experiences.
From understanding CVI to making environments more accessible
The first stage of Jaclyn’s PhD involved looking closely at how CVI is currently assessed. There were many questionnaires for patients with CVI, but of all of them only one specifically addressed issues with clutter. This was developed by a team in Leuven, Belgium. So Jaclyn travelled to Belgium to work with the team, to build her understanding of how CVI is assessed.
That foundation is helping her develop the next stages of her research.
Ultimately, the ambition is practical: to better understand how children with CVI experience cluttered spaces, so that we can begin to think about how environments could be made more accessible to them.
Sometimes, the most important breakthroughs begin by looking at a problem from a completely different angle.
Why funding research into CVI matters
This kind of research does not happen without investment; Fight for Sight funding is helping make Jaclyn’s research possible. By backing an early-career researcher working on an area of sight loss where so much is still to be understood, our supporters are helping build knowledge that could improve life for children with CVI.
That is what your support makes possible.
We fund brilliant minds and bright ideas - including researchers asking new questions, exploring overlooked challenges and finding better ways to understand vision loss. And sometimes, the most important breakthroughs begin by looking at a problem from a completely different angle.
What rare conditions can teach us about sight loss
CVI is a powerful example of why sight loss research needs to be broad, ambitious and connected. Studying a less common condition can reveal something fundamental about how vision works.
Jaclyn’s research focuses on the brain’s ability to process visual information. That takes us beyond the traditional focus on the eye and into the complex relationship between vision, the brain, attention and our understanding of the world around us. The more we understand these processes, the more questions we can ask across sight loss research, because essentially, rare conditions can act as scientific windows. By investigating a specific and sometimes overlooked problem in detail, researchers can uncover mechanisms, challenges and ideas that may help inform wider research.
Your support puts change in sight
When you support Fight for Sight, you are doing more than funding a single research project; you are helping brilliant researchers investigate the questions that could otherwise go unanswered.
Donate today and help us fund the next brilliant mind, the next bright idea and the next step towards a future where sight loss no longer limits what is possible.
Save Sight. Change Lives.
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