NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY (2018-2020)
CBS research conducted by the team at Newcastle University – led by Professor John-Paul Taylor and Dr Kat da Silva Morgan in conjunction with Professor Dominic ffytche at King’s College London
Part One investigated the difference in the brains of people with sight loss who develop CBS and those with sight loss for whom the condition plays no part in their lives.
da Silva Morgan 101450388 eThesis.pdf (ncl.ac.uk)
Funded by Fight for Sight, Esme’s Umbrella, Thomas Pocklington Trust and National Eye Research Centre
Part Two explored the possibility of using Transcranial direct current stimulation to target specific areas of the brain in order to modulate its activity. In September 2022, a landmark study was published. Led by Dr Kat da Silva Morgan, who is one of Esme’s Research Fellows and Professor John-Paul Taylor, the study shows that the occurrence of CBS hallucinations can be significantly reduced by the use of a non-invasive electrical brain stimulation technique that makes the visual parts of the brain less excitable. This is the first-ever study of CBS treatment in a clinical trial setting using a placebo and is the best possible evidence that a treatment works. What we need now is investment to optimise the treatment and develop it into something that could be widely adopted by the NHS and given to people in their homes.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35817197
Funded by The Macular Society
