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Triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) is an organophosphate flame retardant that is frequently detected in the environments. TPhP exposure is known to cause developmental toxicity. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain underestimated. In the present study, zebrafish embryos were acutely exposed to 0, 4 and 100 μg/L TPhP until 144 h post-fertilization. Profiles of differentially expressed proteins were constructed using a shotgun proteomic. With the input of differential proteins, principal component analysis suggested different protein expression profiles for 4 and 100 μg/L TPhP. Gene ontology and KEGG pathway analyses further found that effects of TPhP at 4 μg/L targeted phagosome and lysosome activity, while 100 μg/L TPhP mainly affected carbohydrate metabolism, muscular contraction and phagosome. Based on proteomic data, diverse bioassays were employed to ascertain the effects of TPhP on specific proteins and pathways. At gene and protein levels, expressions of critical visual proteins were significantly changed by TPhP exposure, including retinoschisin 1a, opsins and crystallins, implying the impairment of ocular development and function. TPhP exposure at 100 μg/L also altered the abundances of diverse muscular proteins and disordered the assembly of muscle fibers. Effects of TPhP on visual development and motor activity may be combined to disturb larval swimming behavior. In summary, current results provided mechanistic clues to the developmental toxicities of TPhP. Future works are inspired to broaden the toxicological knowledge of TPhP based on current proteomic results. Image 1 • TPhP at 4 μg/L targeted phagosome and lysosome activities in zebrafish larvae. • TPhP at 100 μg/L affected carbohydrate metabolism, muscle contraction and lysosome. • Expressions of critical visual proteins were disturbed, implying ocular toxicity. • Assembly of muscle fibers was disordered by 100 μg/L TPhP. • Toxic mechanisms of TPhP varied as a function of exposure concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is developmental brain abnormalities which is prior to birth or during birth and after delivery. Cerebral brain damage cells which leads to other health issues such as vision, hearing, and motor activities and so on. The major health issues for the cerebral palsy children such as vision problem. The proposed approach is used to measure and quantify the performance evaluation of Functional Vision Assessments for the disabled children examination with CP. Analyzed the Improvement of Vision of CP children by Visually Evoked Potential (VEP) device used for before and after the therapy Process in CP Rehabilitation. This method is performed with ophthalmological device together with Functional Vision Questionnaire and evaluate the assessment were completely regarding Twenty Five children (20 males,5 females, age range between 1-11years; motor disability activity classification function system (GMFCS) level V; Manual disability activity classification function system level V)who have been recognized with CP(80% spastic quadriplegia,7%athetoid quadriplegia,10%mixed type,3% hemiplegic). All CP children had motor and intellectual incapacity and failure to impart reliably through either visual or verbal correspondence. As the Results, the significant difference is found in the VEP for the CP children and controls analyzed with the parameter measurement of mean latency and mean amplitudes between them. Abnormal VEP in children with CP exhibited a connection with the nearness of direct to extreme delayed developmental Growth. The Major of the Visual Functional Assessment of CP children which were assessed in Rehabilitation Center, activities of CP children are performed in rehabilitation center and found the good response from item given to the CP children. The proposed one which achieve the diagnostic performance by Functional Questionnaire routine vision assessment of children with CP and also the utilizing of ophthalmological device VEP for evaluating the performance of Vision development. The neurophysiologic investigations of VEP they can serve as essential tool in the clinical work up of CP children. So, conclude that the VEP device is used as a clinical purpose for quantitative evaluation of visual acuity in children with neurological or visual impairment. The VEP measurement is showed good improvement in amplitude and latency of the waveform in two children with CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly all modern life depends on artificial light; however, it does cause health problems. With certain restrictions of artificial light emitting technology, the influence of the light spectrum is inevitable. The most remarkable problem is its overload in the short wavelength component. Short wavelength artificial light has a wide range of influences from ocular development to mental problems. The visual neuronal pathway, as the primary light-sensing structure, may contain the fundamental mechanism of all light-induced abnormalities. However, how the artificial light spectrum shapes the visual neuronal pathway during development in mammals is poorly understood. We placed C57BL/6 mice in three different spectrum environments (full-spectrum white light: 400–750 nm; violet light: 400 ± 20 nm; green light: 510 ± 20 nm) beginning at eye opening, with a fixed light time of 7:00–19:00. During development, we assessed the ocular axial dimension, visual function and retinal neurons. After two weeks under short wavelength conditions, the ocular axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD) and length of lens thickness, real vitreous chamber depth and retinal thickness (LLVR) were shorter, visual acuity (VA) decreased, and retinal electrical activity was impaired. The density of S-cones in the dorsal and ventral retinas both decreased after one week under short wavelength conditions. In the ventral retina, it increased after three weeks. Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) density and axon thickness were not influenced; however, the axonal terminals in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) were less clustered and sparse. Amacrine cells (ACs) were significantly more activated. Green light has few effects. The KEGG and GO enrichment analyses showed that many genes related to neural circuitry, synaptic formation and neurotransmitter function were differentially expressed in the short wavelength light group. In conclusion, exposure to short wavelength artificial light in the early stage of vision-dependent development in mice delayed the development of the visual pathway. The axon terminus structure and neurotransmitter function may be the major suffering. [Display omitted] ● The short wavelength violet light is the important polluted light components. ● Two weeks after eye opening is the major affected period during mice visual pathway development. ● Violet light influences both ocular axial dimension and function development. ● Neurodevelopment, axon/synapse and neurotransmitter abnormal may be the fundamental mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of motion processing is a critical part of visual development, allowing children to interact with moving objects and navigate within a dynamic environment. However, global motion processing, which requires pooling motion information across space, develops late, reaching adult-like levels only by mid-to-late childhood. The reasons underlying this protracted development are not yet fully understood. In this study, we sought to determine whether the development of motion coherence sensitivity is limited by internal noise (i.e., imprecision in estimating the directions of individual elements) and/or global pooling across local estimates. To this end, we presented equivalent noise direction discrimination tasks and motion coherence tasks at both slow (1.5°/s) and fast (6°/s) speeds to children aged 5, 7, 9 and 11 years, and adults. We show that, as children get older, their levels of internal noise reduce, and they are able to average across more local motion estimates. Regression analyses indicated, however, that age-related improvements in coherent motion perception are driven solely by improvements in averaging and not by reductions in internal noise. Our results suggest that the development of coherent motion sensitivity is primarily limited by developmental changes within brain regions involved in integrating motion signals (e.g., MT/V5). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To explore the changes of lateral geniculate body and visual cortex in monocular strabismus and form deprived amblyopic rat, and visual development plastic stage and visual plasticity in adult rats.Methods A total of 60 SD rats ages 13 d were randomly divided into A, B, C three groups with 20 in each group, group A was set as the normal control group without any processing, group B was strabismus amblyopic group, using the unilateral extraocular rectus resection to establish the strabismus amblyopia model, group C was monocular form deprivation amblyopia group using unilateral eyelid edge resection + lid suture. At visual developmental early phase (P25), meta phase (P35), late phase (P45) and adult phase (P120), the lateral geniculate body and visual cortex area 17 of five rats in each group were exacted for C-fos Immunocytochemistry. Neuron morphological changes in lateral geniculate body and visual cortex was observed, the positive neurons differences of C-fos expression induced by light stimulation was measured in each group, and the condition of radiation development of P120 amblyopic adult rats was observed.Results In groups B and C, C-fos positive cells were significantly lower than the control group at P25 (P<0.05), there was no statistical difference of C-fos protein positive cells between group B and group A (P>0.05), C-fos protein positive cells level of group B was significantly lower than that of group A (P<0.05). The binoculus C-fos protein positive cells level of groups B and C were significantly higher than that of control group at P35, P45 and P120 with statistically significant differences (P<0.05).Conclusions The increasing of C-fos expression in geniculate body and visual cortex neurons of adult amblyopia suggests the visual cortex neurons exist a certain degree of visual plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: Background: The Illinois College of Optometry''s (ICO) Pediatric Outreach Program (POP) provides comprehensive vision care for high-risk children from birth to approximately 5 years of age in partnership with early intervention programs throughout the city of Chicago. Grant funds assisted in the ability to deliver vision services and spectacles to uninsured children. This report describes the structure and organization of the POP and presents the visual data. Methods: Comprehensive eye examinations were performed on 4,298 children ages birth to approximately 5 years at 76 early intervention program sites. All of the children evaluated were enrolled from early intervention/Head Start programs. Visual acuity determination (by Lea method), assessment of binocular status, stereopsis evaluation, cycloplegic retinoscopy, and ocular health evaluations were performed. As necessary, eyeglasses were prescribed. Amblyogenic risk factors, strabismus, and ocular pathology were identified. Results: Of the 4,298 children examined, 49% were boys and 51% were girls. Two percent were younger than 12 months old, 6% were 1.1 to 2 years old, 12% were 2.1 to 3 years, 30% were 3.1 to 4 years, 35% were 4.1 to 5 years, 14% were 5.1 to 6 years, and 1% were older than 6 years. Hyperopia and emmetropia were the most common refractive classifications among the children examined. Approximately 6.5% had risk factors for isometropic amblyopia, and 2.3% had risk factors for anisometropic amblyopia. Approximately 1% of the children had strabismus. Less than 1% of the children examined were identified with ocular pathology. Spectacles were dispensed to 16.6% of the children examined. Conclusions: The Pediatric Outreach Program provides early identification and treatment of abnormal visual conditions, ensuring that children have maximal visual acuity and visual function. The educational aspects of the program have also contributed to its successes. Education for parents and early intervention agency staff promote the importance of comprehensive vision examinations for children 5 years of age and younger. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Preterm birth is associated with an increased risk of visual impairment. However, not all visual deficits can be fully explained by the typical prematurity morbidity factors. In addition, children born preterm often exhibit transient hypothroxinemia of prematurity (THOP) due to premature severing of the maternal supply of thyroid hormones. Because thyroid hormone is critically needed for multiple facets of early brain development, including the structures needed for visual processing, and because the maternal thyroid supply is essential throughout pregnancy, it is possible that THOP contributes to the visual impairments seen in preterm children. To test this hypothesis, we used both clinical tests and visual-evoked potential techniques to assess visual abilities in two cohorts of preterm infants whose thyroid hormone levels were measured in the perinatal period. In the first cohort born 30 to 35 weeks gestation, we found associations between low thyroid hormone levels and reduced visual attention at 3 months corrected age (Study 1) and poor visuomotor abilities at 12 and 18 months corrected age (Study 2). In the second cohort born 23 to 35 weeks gestation, THOP severity was negatively correlated with attention at 3 months corrected age (Study 3) and contrast sensitivity and color vision at 6 months corrected age (Study 4). These findings therefore suggest that thyroid hormone is necessary for the development of early visual abilities and that THOP may partially explain the visual deficits of preterm infants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The development of the visual system is the most studied of the sensory systems. The advances in technology have made it possible to study the neuroprocesses at the cellular and circuit level. The physical structure of the eye develops early in fetal life, whereas the neurocomponents and connections develop in later fetal and early neonatal life. The development of the visual system involves genetic coding, endogenous brain activity, exogenous visual stimulation after birth at term, and protected sleep cycles, particularly rapid eye movement sleep. Before birth at term, the fetus requires no outside visual stimulation or light. The critical element in development of the visual system before birth at term is protection of rapid eye movement sleep and sleep cycles. Sleep deprivation or disruption in utero and early months of neonatal life causes significant interference with visual development resulting in loss of the topographic relationships between the retina, the lateral geniculate nucleus, and the primary visual cortex in the infant. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Breastfeeding is thought to be associated with better neurologic outcomes in a person from infancy to adulthood. This article reviews the existing research on breastfeeding and neurodevelopment in areas of neuromotor development, visual development, cognitive development, educational achievement, and social adaptation, with an emphasis on cognitive development. Existing theories (biochemical, behavioral, and genetic) used to explain the effect of breastfeeding on neurodevelopment are explained including the supporting research. The methodology of published studies is critiqued in the areas of classification of infant feeding, definition of outcomes, study design and statistical analysis, control of confounding variables, and interpretation of results. Taking a historical perspective, the aim of this review is to inform readers on past and current research and its applicability to the current perspective on the benefits of breastfeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We measured evoked responses to directional motion in children and adults. • Two reliable components with distinct time-courses and topographies were identified. • Both component waveforms exhibited clear age-related differences. • Both early sensory and later decisional processes seem to develop across childhood. Motion sensitivity increases during childhood, but little is known about the neural correlates. Most studies investigating children's evoked responses have not dissociated direction-specific and non-direction-specific responses. To isolate direction-specific responses, we presented coherently moving dot stimuli preceded by incoherent motion, to 6- to 7-year-olds (n = 34), 8- to 10-year-olds (n = 34), 10- to 12-year-olds (n = 34) and adults (n = 20). Participants reported the coherent motion direction while high-density EEG was recorded. Using a data-driven approach, we identified two stimulus-locked EEG components with distinct topographies: an early component with an occipital topography likely reflecting sensory encoding and a later, sustained positive component over centro-parietal electrodes that we attribute to decision-related processes. The component waveforms showed clear age-related differences. In the early, occipital component, all groups showed a negativity peaking at ˜300 ms, like the previously reported coherent-motion N2. However, the children, unlike adults, showed an additional positive peak at ˜200 ms, suggesting differential stimulus encoding. The later positivity in the centro-parietal component rose more steeply for adults than for the youngest children, likely reflecting age-related speeding of decision-making. We conclude that children's protracted development of coherent motion sensitivity is associated with maturation of both early sensory and later decision-related processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Changes in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor 2A subunit expression caused by binocular form deprivation and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan degradation," by Mingming Liu, Wei Qin and Hanping Xie is presented.

An abstract of the article "Development of Brain Mechanisms for Visual Global Processing and Object Segmentation," by Janette Atkinson and Oliver Braddick is presented.

An abstract of the article "Visual and Visuocognitive Development in Children Born Very Prematurely," by Janette Atkinson and Oliver Braddick is presented.

An abstract of the article "Visual Tracking and Its Relationship to Cortical Development," by Kerstin Rosander is presented.