About me

 

I was born in 1969, Europe. After attending the secondary school focusing on humanities, in 1993, at the age of 23, I  graduated in medicine with a thesis on diabetic retinopathy. However, my growing inclination for more theoretical approaches made me qualify as an Ophthalmologist in 1997 with a dissertation on an experimental psychophysical exam, the Eidomorphometry, that I have personally developed to evaluate spatial relationship perception and the related anisotropy of the visual system. Since the date of its release, the test has been used in my department to investigate several clinical conditions like dyslexia, strabismus, amblyopia, vertigo, and cerebral visual impairment. 

After going on practicing ophthalmology for two years at the Low Vision Center, Turin University, I was appointed consultant at the Center of Neuro-Ophthalmology where I remained until 2004. In the same year I earned my Ph.D. in Ophthalmological Sciences, with a doctoral dissertation titled Curvature Analysis, Spatial Relationship Perception and Quality of Vision in Neurophysiological and Ophthalmological Field.

In 1997 I received the award for the best research at the XXII meeting of the Northwestern Opthalmological Society (SONO) for the study titled “Polarized Light Perimetry and glaucoma: Possibility of Differential Sensitivities as a Function of the Polarization Axis”.

”In 2000 I was awarded for the study titled "Spatial Relationship Perception in the Dyslexic Child: a Novel Reading Key?" which theorized a novel hypothesis on the visuoperceptual impairment in dyslexic children: the theory of the perceptive shrinking. The next year I was awarded again for the monograph titled Neuro-Ophthalmology (in Italian), and interviewed by the official journal of the Italian Ophthalmological Society, The Italian Ophthalmologists. In addition, I received the Award for Research in Ophthalmology.

My findings in normal subjects were later formalized in the paper “Evaluation of spatial anisotropy by curvature analysis of elliptical targets” published in the Open Ophthalmology Journal (2008). The results in dyslexic children and the theory of the perceptive shrinking were published two years later on Cortex with the title “Spatial relationship perception and developmental dyslexia”. A new diagnostic platform to assess visuoperceptual impairment in neuro-ophthalmology and dyslexia, the TETRA analyzer™,  has been validated at the University of Turin and Milan, and currently used in Italy for diagnostic purposes within the clinical setting. A version suitable for the U.S. is under preparation.

Within the frame of psychophysics, I am particularly interested in the visual field. My studies on the sensibility to polarized light across the visual field in glaucomatous patients, carried out during the specialization training, and the related theory of the barostress-induced phylogenetic regression has been considered so intriguing that in 1997 the study titled "Polarized Light Perimetry and glaucoma: the possibility of differential sensitivities as a function of the polarization axis" was awarded as the best research at the XXII meeting of the North Western Opthalmological Society.

From 2001 to 2005 I worked at the Center of Neuro-Ophthalmology of the University of Turin, aiming at investigating the visual aspects of developmental dyslexia. More theoretical than clinical, I am member of the Italian Perimetric Society and of the International Perimetric Society (IPS). As a staunch advocate of multidisciplinarity, I  joined for about 2 years the Interdisciplinary Study group of Posturology in collaboration with The Gnatologic Department and the Otorinolaringoiatric Department of the University of Turin and, in 2006, the Research and Interdisciplinary Formation in Mathematics and Biomedicine Group (MeRIMa).
In 2006 I moved to the Gradenigo Hospital, Ophthalmology Department, where I worked until 2018 as a surgeon, making a great deal of effort to put together clinical activity and research in visual psychophysics and neuro-ophthalmology.

More recently my interests involve space medicine, in particular the effect of the extraterrestrial environment (Moon, Mars, and outer space) on the visual system. As a member of the Moon Village Association (MVA) and of the MVA Human Physiology and Biology Working Group, I have given speechs at national and international meetings on the effects of space radiations and microgravity on the human eye in astronauts.

Since 1998 I am professor on contract of Psychophysics of Vision at the University of Turin since 2013. All the dissertations of my students are publieshed and available on international journals. 

I am Editor-in-Chief of Neuro-Ophthalmology & Visual Neuroscience and reviewer of some international journals.

 Within the clinical settings my main fields of interest is the diagnosis and treatment of  GLAUCOMA, OPTIC NEURITIS, NEURO-OPHTHALMOGICAL DISEASES, VISUAL AURA,  and STROKE. with my assistant, Dott. Ketty Dutto, An evidence-based medicine rehabilitation protocol aimed at improving vision and the visual field of patients who suffer from cerebral ischemia (stroke) is administered upon request in my medical office. 

Please visit the section "AREA PAZIENTI" for further information.