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Advanced Spatiomotor Rehabilitation for Navigation in Blindness & Visual Impairment

Award Number: R01EY024056
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2014
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2024

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Advanced Spatiomotor Rehabilitation for Navigation in Blindness & Visual Impairment - Advanced Spatiomotor Rehabilitation for Navigation in Blindness & Visual Impairment ABSTRACT We propose a radical new multidisciplinary approach to navigation training in blindness and visual impairment. Successful navigation requires the development of an accurate and flexible mental, or cognitive, map of the navigational space and of the route trajectory required to travel from the current to the target location. The Cognitive-Kinesthetic (C-K) Rehabilitation Training that we have developed in the preceding period utilizes a unique form of blind memory-guided drawing to develop cognitive mapping to a high level of proficiency. Particular reliance must be placed on such mental maps (supported only by tactile and auditory inputs), and on the ability to use them effectively for spatiomotor control, when vision with its built-in spatial functionality is lost. There is, however, a fundamental gap in the practice of Orientation and Mobility (O&M), which is the lack of a specific emphasis on enhancement of these cognitive roots of spatiomotor activity, despite their known importance for navigation in the visually impaired. We therefore propose a rigorous multidisciplinary approach to this issue, which lies at the intersection of the fields of spatiomotor rehabilitation, blindness assessment technologies, and brain function, each a focus of one Specific Aim. To train the spatial cognition abilities underlying successful navigation, the current proposal aims to translate the power of the C-K Rehabilitation Training, which we developed in the preceding grant period for the manual domain of operation, to the domain of navigation. The blind and visually impaired trainees will quickly learn how to generate precise and stable cognitive maps of haptically explored raised-line images or tactile maps, and how to use the formed cognitive maps to confidently guide both drawing ’hand navigation’ on a map-scale, and whole-body blind navigation on the macro-scale. Once translated to navigation, our preliminary data show that this efficient and enjoyable training will rapidly and sustainably enhance spatial cognition functions both for improved navigation performance and for enhancement of more general spatial cognitive skills. Beyond its practical advantages, the training will also serve as an efficient tool to drive and study training-based neuroplasticity mechanisms through a comprehensive whole-brain multimodal brain imaging platform. These neuroplastic are difficult to study properly without a rapid and effective training protocol, which has not previously been available. Taken together, the research program will overcome the relative disconnect between expanding neuroscience knowledge and approaches to practical blindness rehabilitation. The knowledge gained will in turn inform and benefit further rehabilitative developments, both in navigation proficiency and in more general cognitive function in the blind population. !


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $482,487 )
2023	2023	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	9	7/21/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$482,487
														Subtotal = $482,487

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $482,117 )
2022	2022	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	8	7/5/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$482,117
														Subtotal = $482,117

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $481,147 )
2021	2021	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	7	6/30/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$481,147
														Subtotal = $481,147

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $494,027 )
2020	2020	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	6	6/22/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$494,027
														Subtotal = $494,027

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $469,216 )
2019	2019	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	002	5	9/16/2019	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$2
2019	2019	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	001	5	9/13/2019	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$469,216
2019	2017	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	4	8/9/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$2
														Subtotal = $469,216

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $423,876 )
2017	2017	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	4	3/30/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$381,488
2017	2017	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, THE	2318 FILLMORE ST	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	001	4	7/24/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$42,388
														Subtotal = $423,876

Issue Date FY: 2016 ( Subtotal = $423,876 )
2016	2016	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH FOUNDATION	2318 FILLMORE STREET	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	3	4/6/2016	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$423,876
														Subtotal = $423,876

Issue Date FY: 2015 ( Subtotal = $415,398 )
2015	2015	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH FOUNDATION	2318 FILLMORE STREET	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	2	3/27/2015	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$415,398
														Subtotal = $415,398

Issue Date FY: 2014 ( Subtotal = $423,876 )
2014	2014	SMITH-KETTLEWELL EYE RESEARCH FOUNDATION	2318 FILLMORE STREET	SAN FRANCISCO	CA	94115	SAN FRANCISCO	USA	Vision Research	000	1	3/26/2014	NEW	$423,876
														Subtotal = $423,876

Grand Total All Awards = $4,096,020

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Advanced Spatiomotor Rehabilitation for Navigation in Blindness & Visual Impairment

Award Number: R01EY024056

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2014

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2024

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