Eye movements and vision

In Sweden and at Karolinska Institutet we have a long and proud tradition of vision research. The Sigvard and Marianne Bernadotte Research Laboratory for Pediatric Ophthalmology is the country's most advanced laboratory for research on children's eyes and vision.

Research at the Bernadotte Lab

The overall goal of the work at the laboratory is to use vision and eye movements to understand the workings of the brain in health and disease. The aim with our studies is to increase knowledge and invent new methods that can be used to learn about developmental aspects of fundamental and functional eye movements. At the lab, we are ophthalmologists, optometrists, orthoptists, and linguists. Most of our research is clinical and involves eye tracking.

Developmental Eye Movements

The developmental eye movement research program is focused on applying and evaluating methods to examine vision in children that can enable us to learn more about vision deficits related to brain damage, autism spectrum disorders, metabolic diseases, and cerebral palsy. Principal investigator is Jan Ygge, MD, PhD.

Fundamental Eye Movements

The fundamental eye movement research program is focused on investigating and modelling basic eye motility properties in order to learn more about how the visual system works. The research involves eye tracking on healthy and diseased subjects. Principal investigator is Tony Pansell, OD, PhD.

Functional Eye Movements

The functional eye movement research program is focused on measuring and analysing eye movements during higher order tasks such as reading, visual search, and emotion recognition. The research involves using eye tracking to evaluate a subjects performance. Principal investigator is Gustaf Öqvist Seimyr, MA, PhD.

Research Projects

  • Development of eye movements
  • Basal research of eye movements
  • Functional eye movements
  • Cerebral eye damage and plasticity
  • Optic nerve damage and metabolic diseases

Selected Publications

Conserved subcortical processing in visuo-vestibular gaze control

Tobias Wibble, Tony Pansell, Sten Grillner & Juan Pérez-Fernández 

Nature Communications volume 13, Article number: 4699 (2022) Cite this article 498 Accesses 5 Altmetric Metrics

Visuo-motor integration, vision perception and attention in mTBI patients. Preliminary findings

Mariagrazia Benassi, Davide Frattini, Sara Garofalo, Roberto Bolzani, Tony Pansell

PLoS One. 2021 Apr 27;16(4):e0250598.doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250598. eCollection 2021.

Developmental trajectories of global motion and global form perception from 4 years to adulthood

Mariagrazia Benassi, Sara Giovagnoli, Tony Pansell, Luca Mandolesi, Roberto Bolzani, Sara Magri, Lea Forsman, Kerstin Hellgren

J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Jul;207:105092.doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105092. Epub 2021 Mar 4.

Vision therapy as part of neurorehabilitation after acquired brain injury - a clinical study in an outpatient setting

J Johansson, M Berthold Lindstedt, K Borg 

Brain Inj. 2021 Jan 5;35(1):82-89.doi: 10.1080/02699052.2020.1858495. Epub 2020 Dec 9.

[Retinal hemorrhages in abusive head trauma]

Kerstin Hellgren, Kristina Fahnehjelm 

Lakartidningen. 2020 May 29;117:19239.

Intensified visual clutter induces increased sympathetic signalling, poorer postural control, and faster torsional eye movements during visual rotation         

Tobias Wibble , Ulrika Södergård, Frank Träisk , Tony Pansell 

PLoS One. 2020 Jan 3;15(1):e0227370.doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227370. eCollection 2020.

Profile of macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer thickness in healthy 6.5 year- old Swedish children

Urszula Arnljots, Maria Nilsson, Ida Hed Myrberg, Ulrika Åden, Kerstin Hellgren

BMC Ophthalmol. 2020 Aug 12;20(1):329.doi: 10.1186/s12886-020-01601-y.

Optic Disc Coloboma in children - prevalence, clinical characteristics and associated morbidity

Athanasia Skriapa Manta, Monica Olsson, Ulla Ek, Ronny Wickström, Kristina Teär Fahnehjelm

Acta Ophthalmol. 2019 Aug;97(5):478-485.doi: 10.1111/aos.13999. Epub 2018 Dec 13.

Vision therapy as part of neurorehabilitation after acquired brain injury - a clinical study in an outpatient setting

J Johansson, M Berthold Lindstedt, K Borg 

Brain Inj. 2020 Dec 9;1-8.doi: 10.1080/02699052.2020.1858495. Online ahead of print.

Group leader

Tony Pansell

Senior lecturer/optician
K8 Department of Clinical Neuroscience

Research team members

Maria Persson
16-08-2022