Physicians, scientists, and staff from the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, and the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children (WPSBC) are working together to help find a solution for Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI). CVI is the leading visual diagnosis among children, affecting nearly 75% of the students at WPSBC alone. CVI is caused by damage or dysfunction of the primary or associated cortices of the brain. This means that while a child’s eye may be perfectly healthy, the sensory message is not delivered or interpreted properly by the

A central component of the new Pittsburgh Vision Institute will be a dedicated Center for Cortical Vision, aimed at restoring visual perception in patients who have experienced retinal degeneration. One of the leading causes of blindness in the Western World, retinal degeneration occurs in a variety of pathological conditions, including ocular trauma, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, tumors, and optic neuropathies. An expert team of clinicians and researchers at the University of Pittsburgh will continue to build upon existing collaborative efforts with the Brain Institute of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University as well as many international scientists, including those at the Institut