Giorgia Demaria


Project Update 16.04.2020

Current activities

At the moment I’m working together with Visio on the touchscreen adaptation of one of my experimental perimetric devices, to determine whether this test can distinguish between three pathologies that have distinct visual field loss patterns.
I’m also working together with the Alzheimer Centre on my last project where I’ll be testing the perimetric techniques that resulted successful in my first project. This project aims to investigate whether patients with cognitive impairment that might have issue with the HFA (gold standard), can instead have reliable test outcomes with these devices.

While the data collection is ongoing (although at the moment on halt due to Covid-19), I’m working on the manuscript for the first project, which introduces the perimetric techniques used in this project, and establish their effectiveness.

Future plans:

While at the moment making plans seems difficult and I’m undecided, I know I want to apply the expertise I acquired in this program. For this reason I’m leaning towards a company setting.

My EGRET+ Experience:

Egret+ has offered the opportunity to work with researchers all over Europe, but had also the great benefit to have a few companies that were involved in the projects and gave us an idea of what research can mean outside of academia. This was always an interest of mine, and the main reason why I looked for an ITN position.

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Pupil perimetry, attentional perimetry, and other new perimetric techniques in glaucoma

Supervisors:

Prof. Nomdo M. Jansonius (www.nomdo.nl/research.htm)

Prof. Frans W. Cornelissen (www.visualneuroscience.nl)

Background & Interests

My name is Giorgia Demaria. I graduated in Psychology (BSc) at the University of Turin, in Italy, where I also did a clinical internship in a neuropsychology unit of “Presidio Sanitario San Camillo”, a rehabilitation hospital. I later went on to attain a MSc in Neuropsychology at Maastricht University, in The Netherlands. During my Master I did an internship at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (Dublin, Ireland) and collaborated in the INDIREA project “Investigating the Effects of Brain Stimulation on Visual Attention in Older Adults”. After this, I was offered the possibility to do a traineeship at Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH, in Munich; definitely not my field, but in my opinion every learnt skill will help you in your career!

I am interested specifically in neurodegenerative diseases related to old age, visual cognition and my main objective is to do research that will lead to clinical application, in order to gain better and more reliable diagnoses, and consequently more efficient rehabilitation techniques.

Aim of the project

The current gold standard for functional testing of the visual system in glaucoma, standard automated perimetry, cannot be used in very young and old patients, patients with motor problems (Parkinson disease) and cognitive limitations (as part of aging, including Alzheimer disease, or congenital). In this project we will evaluate a new objective functional test developed by partner NCO (multifocal pupillographic objective perimetry), a new form of attentional perimetry developed by partner OCU (Ocusweep), and several other alternatives for standard automated perimetry in healthy subjects, patients with glaucoma, and in patients with limited motor and/or cognitive performance – with and without glaucoma or other diseases affecting the visual field. We will focus on learning effects, sensitivity and specificity, intra- and inter-device variability, testing time, and feasibility in the various subgroups, and initiate a longitudinal assessment.

Personal links

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/giorgiademaria

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Giorgia_Demaria