Bringing a Fresh Eye to Research
Karen Sullivan: Healthy Contrast
After watching her great-grandmother struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, Karen Sullivan wanted to do something to help others. After high school she worked for  a time as a live-in home health aid for people with the disease. Now she is a PhD candidate studying how vision problems caused by Alzheimer’s may interfere with a patient’s ability to function in daily life. Sullivan received a national research service award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for her research in the Psychology Department’s Vision and Cognition Laboratory.
 Alzheimer’s disease damages nerve cells in the brain that control memory and language, but the disease also harms the optic nerve, reducing the ability to see contrasts. (A similar problem occurs in Parkinson’s patients.) Sullivan explains, “Alzheimer’s patients, who are already confused, are seeing a confusing picture.” For example, patients with a reduced ability to perceive contrasts may have difficulty seeing blue buttons on a blue shirt and find it hard to dress themselves.
Sullivan’s advisor, Alice Cronin-Golomb, previously showed that Alzheimer’s patients, who often must eat soft foods like mashed potatoes or pasta, ate significantly more when food was served on a red rather than a white plate, probably because they could see their food more clearly.
Sullivan also notes that perceiving contrasts is a critical part of recognizing people’s faces. For her dissertation project, Sullivan has designed experiments involving everyday activities like finding the right pill, getting dressed, and writing checks. She is testing to see if simple changes, like using buttons in a contrasting color on a sweater, can help patients in the beginning and middle stages of Alzheimer’s. Her goal is to find solutions that will make visual information more comprehensible to Alzheimer’s patients. “If their brain gets better quality input they are less confused,” she says. By implementing adaptations to enhance their vision, she hopes that some patients will be able to function as well as their peers without the disease.
—by Trina Arpin |
