Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology

Biography

Marcel ten Tusscher has his expertise in neuroanatomy, neuroophthalmology and paediatric ophthalmology. By studying eye movements in strabismus and possible ontogenetic and phylogenetic principles of brain organization he came up with a model explaining dissociated vertical divergence. From there a model explaining the offset of binocularity in the brain and the possible mechanisms by which strabismus may follow, arose. The model contains the brain organization of animals with lateral eyes and without binocularity, as well as the organization of the brain of binocular animals. The human brain likely harbors both qualities. Failed cooperation between the three dimensional monocular brainstem, responsible for the execution of eye movements, and the two dimensional binocular cortex from where eye movements are initiated easily explains all aspects of the infantile strabismus syndrome. Both abnormal visual experience during the critical period and a neuroanatomical misfit between crossed and uncrossed retinal projections may cause such failure in cooperation.

Research Interest

Neuro-ophthalmology and strabismus