Bill Harvey: Mission objective clearly defined

Visual fields assessment is pretty well universal in optometric practice and serves as a useful indication of retinal function. It is, however, reliant upon subjective responses and only capable of detecting retinal damage after a significant percentage of cell death. Any objective test for retinal and visual pathway should be of interest to all. Historically, electrophysiology has been used this way but, as many ex-pupils of Aston may remember from Professor Graham Harding’s lectures, if the hairnet of electrodes does not put you off this as an easily applied technique, then the differentiation of small fluctuations on the variously lettered output waves will.