Dr. Janine Mendola

Biography

Janine D. Mendola is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at McGill University. Her research primarily focuses on the functional organization of the human visual system and its neural basis in perception, health, and disease. She explores basic science topics such as binocular vision and form perception, looking into studies of normal behavior as well as the behavioral effects of focal lesions and physiological measurements of brain activity. Currently, Dr. Mendola employs functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) techniques to measure local physiological signals in the brains of human subjects as they view visual stimuli. Her clinically oriented projects have improved the neurological characterization of both adults and children with amblyopia (lazy eye). With the advent of gene replacement therapies in ophthalmology, she is passionate about contributing to efforts that preserve sight in inherited retinal diseases. Janine has collaborated with a team of researchers to study traumatic optic nerve injury using advanced MRI imaging techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging and cutting-edge analyses, including machine learning. Over the years, she has drawn inspiration from the relatively understood monkey visual system to gain insights into the human visual system, utilizing non-invasive methods to localize the boundaries of multiple areas within the human visual cortex, which are similar to those previously identified in monkeys.

Research Interests