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Key researchers

Dr. Arnold J. Wilkins

Arnold Wilkins, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex, is the leading authority on Visual Stress and the use of colour to mitigate the associated symptoms. While he was a senior researcher in the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit of the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), Dr. Wilkins developed the Intuitive Colorimeter® device. It is used today in vision research and teaching schools, and it is now the primary medical device for determining the optimal filter tint to relieve Visual Stress.   

  

Dr. Wilkins has written several books and articles, created many videos, and was published several hundred times in peer-reviewed psychology, neurology, optometry, ophthalmology, and education journals.

Dr. Arnold J. Wilkins

Dr. Bruce Evans

Professor Bruce Evans is the Director of Research at the Institute of Optometry in London (United Kingdom). He is also a visiting professor at City, University of London, and London South Bank University and ran an independent Optometry practice in Essex for over 25 years.  

 

With over 280 publications, his main research interests involve binocular vision (orthoptics), visual factors in dyslexia, Visual Stress, orthoptics, contact lenses, and glaucoma. For many years, Evans has worked hard to educate teachers, educational and child psychologists, and pediatricians on the effects that vision may have on learning. 

 

Professor Evans has published many research papers, articles, books, and videos regarding Visual Stress.

Dr. Bruce Evans

Dr. Peter M. Allen

Dr. Allen is the Director of the Vision and Hearing Sciences Research Group at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and is the Professor of Optometry and Visual Science. In 2013, Peter was awarded the Neil Charman Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in optical research, for recognition of his work on Visual Stress and the relation between reading difficulties and perceptual distortion, and the use of colour as a therapeutic intervention in children with developmental disorders (ADHD, Tourette syndrome and autism). 

 

With over 200 published papers, his main research interests are myopia, reading difficulties, visual function in specialist groups, tinnitus, and physical activity and its effect on physical and mental health. Peter has collaborated with many professionals and experts from around the globe (i.e., the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, the United States, and Germany). 

Dr. Peter M. Allen

Dr. Olivier Penacchio

Dr. Penacchio is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom.  

 

He has published many papers and articles on Visual Salience that are all very relevant, discussing visual discomfort and the effectiveness of colour filters. His primary subjects and area of expertise are patterned sensitivities in patients, chromatic induction in migraine, Visual Stress responses to static, and the influence of typography on algorithms.

Dr. Olivier Penacchio

Dr. Sarah Haigh

Dr. Haigh is an assistant professor at the University of Nevada (Reno) in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Integrative Neuroscience. She has been collaborating with a team of experts and has a working theory that the brain is driving to constrain the hyperactivity caused by the visual stimulus and that this struggle drives a homeostatic response evoking discomfort. 

 

Haigh’s interests are the sensory processing in neurotypical individuals and the pathophysiology in clinical conditions, such as migraines and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Sarah Haigh has hundreds of publications where her main subjects are neurological responses to sensory stimuli and how it impacts sensory-related cognition.

Dr. Sarah Haigh

Dr. Gordon Plant

Dr. Gordon Plant is a Neuro-Ophthalmologist with the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Moorfields Eye Hospital, and University College, London. He is also a Fellow of the Colleges of both Physicians and Ophthalmologists. 

 

He is published widely and extensively, with over 500 publications, on just about everything related to the eyes and brain. He was also the first to study the curious phenomenon of visual snow. 

Dr. Gordon Plant

Dr. Douglas de Araújo Vilhena

Professor Douglas Vilhena has a Ph.D. in Neuropsychology from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, and Universidade do Porto, Portugal. He is also the Coordinator of the Laboratory of Applied Research in Neuroscience of Vision (LAPAN-UFMG), President of the Brazilian Congress of Neurovision (UFMG), and Project Manager of II World Dyslexia Forum. 

 

His recent research and interests include spectral overlays for reading difficulties, the effects of spectral overlays on visual parameters and reading ability, and Visual Stress and reading difficulties. 

Dr. Douglas de Araújo Vilhena

Karen Monet

Karen Monet is the founder and CEO of the Opticalm Visual Stress Clinic and Opticalm Inc. With the help of colleagues, she has collected standardized results and is currently working on a case file study. The subject of the study is the effects of precision tinted lenses to alleviate symptoms and improve reading and learning performances, health, and everyday life in individuals with Visual Stress and other neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions. She is also collaborating with different organizations to raise awareness and understanding of Visual Stress. 

 

Karen has been invited to speak at conferences about her Visual Stress experiences by various local and international associations and organizations.

Karen Monet

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