Kabilan Pitchaimuthu
Senior lecturer
Department of Medicine and Optometry
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Research
My research interests can be broadly classified into three major areas: (1) neural mechanisms of visual perception after atypical visual development (2) effects of healthy ageing on visual perception, and (3) neurochemical basis of visual perception. My expertise in research methods includes visual psychophysics, electroencephalography, and neuroimaging (magnetic resonance spectroscopy).
PUBLICATIONS
- Pant, R., Pitchaimuthu, K., Ossandón, J., Shareef, I., Lingareddy, S., Finsterbusch, J., Kekunnaya, R., & Röder, B. (2024). Altered visual cortex excitatory/inhibitory ratio following transient congenital visual deprivation in humans. eLife, 13.
- Sourav, S., Kekunnaya, R., Bottari, D., Shareef, I., Pitchaimuthu, K., & Röder, B. (2024). Sound suppresses earliest visual cortical processing after sight recovery in congenitally blind humans. Communications Biology, 7(1), 118.
- Bruns, P., Li, L., Guerreiro, M.J., Shareef, I., Rajendran, S.S., Pitchaimuthu, K., Kekunnaya, R. and Röder, B., 2022. Audiovisual Spatial Recalibration but Not Integration Is Shaped by Early Sensory Experience. iScience, p.104439.
- Pitchaimuthu, K., Dormal, G., Sourav, S., Shareef, I., Rajendran, S. S., Ossandón, J. P., Kekunnaya, R., & Röder, B. (2021). Steady state evoked potentials indicate changes in nonlinear neural mechanisms of vision in sight recovery individuals. Cortex, 144, 15-28.
- Rajendran, S.S., Bottari, D., Shareef, I., Pitchaimuthu, K., Sourav, S., Troje, N.F., Kekunnaya, R., & Röder, B. (2020). Biological action identification does not require early visual input for development. eNeuro, 7(5).
- Pitchaimuthu, K., Sourav, S., Bottari, D., Banerjee, S., Shareef, I., Kekunnaya, R., & Röder, B. (2019). Color vision in sight recovery individuals. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 37(6), 583-590.
- Chan, Y. M., Pitchaimuthu, K., Wu, Q. Z., Carter, O. L., Egan, G. F., Badcock, D. R., & McKendrick, A. M. (2019). Relating excitatory and inhibitory neurochemicals to visual perception: A magnetic resonance study of occipital cortex between migraine events. Plos one, 14(7), e0208666
- Pitchaimuthu K., Wu Q.Z., Carter O., Nguyen B.N., Sinyeob A., Egan G.F., and McKendrick A.M. (2017). Occipital GABA levels in older adults and their relationship to visual perceptual suppression. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 14231.
- Pitchaimuthu, K. (2017). Perceptual suppression mechanisms in healthy ageing (Doctoral dissertation). http://hdl.handle.net/11343/198158
- Pitchaimuthu, K., Nguyen, B. N., & McKendrick, A. M. (2017). Aging alters intraocular but not interocular foveal center surround contrast suppression. Journal of vision, 17(1), 16-16.
CONFERENCE/MEETING PRESENTATIONS
- Pitchaimuthu, K., Nguyen, B., & McKendrick, A. Healthy aging does not alter centre surround orientation effects in foveal intraocular and interocular contrast suppression. Poster presented at the 26th European Vision & Eye Research Association (EVER) congress, 26th-28th October 2023, Valencia, Spain
- Pitchaimuthu, K., Sourav, S., Bottari, D., Banerjee, S., Shareef, I., Kekunnaya, R., & Röder, B. Color vision in sight recovery individuals after congenital cataract surgery. E-Poster presented at the WSPOS World Wide Connect 2020, Sep 26, 2020
- McKendrick, A., Pitchaimuthu, K., Chan, Y. M., Nguyen, B., Carter, O., & Egan, G. Interindividual Differences in Psychophysical Measures of "Cortical Inhibition": A Behavioural and Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study. Oral presentation at the 42nd European Conference on Visual Perception, Leuven, Belgium, Aug 25-29, 2019.
- Pitchaimuthu, K., Sourav, S., Bottari, D., Banerjee, S., Shareef, I., Kekunnaya, R., & Röder, B. Color vision in sight recovery individuals. Poster presented at the 5th International Conference "Low Vision and the Brain", Berlin, Germany, Nov 30 – Dec 2, 2018.
- Zerr, P., Kekunnaya, R., Shareef, I., Pitchaimuthu, K., van der Stigchel, S., Röder, B., & Ossandon, J. Eye tracker calibration in Individuals with highly unstable gaze due to involuntary nystagmus. Poster presentation at the 41st European Conference on Visual Perception, Trieste, Italy, Aug 26-30, 2018
- Pitchaimuthu K., Nguyen B.N. and McKendrick A.M. “Binocular and interocular surround suppression in older adults” Graduate Research Colloquium. The university of Melbourne Oct, 2016.
- McKendrick A.M., Pitchaimuthu K., Wu Q., Carter O.L., Nguyen B.N. and Egan G.F. "Age-related differences in in vivo Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) concentration correlate with perceptual motion suppression". 12th annual Asia Pacific Conference on Vision, Fremantle, Australia. July 14 - 17, 2016
- Carter O.L., Pitchaimuthu K., Wu Q., Nguyen B.N., Egan G.F. and McKendrick A.M. "Perceptual dynamics of binocular rivalry correlate with Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) concentration assessed using 1H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy when both younger and older adults are included in the sample.” Association for the scientific study of consciousness 2016, Buenos Aires, Argentina. June 15 - 18, 2016
- Pitchaimuthu K., Nguyen B.N. and McKendrick A.M. “Foveal centre surround contrast suppression reveals differential effect of ageing on binocular and interocular suppression.” Vision Science Society meeting 2016, St Pete Beach, USA. May 13-18, 2016.
- Pitchaimuthu K., Wu Q.Z., Egan G.F., Carter O., Nguyen B.N. and McKendrick A.M. “In vivo Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) concentration assessed using 1H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and its relationship with contrast suppression, motion suppression and binocular rivalry in young adults.” 42nd Annual Meeting of the Australasian Experimental Psychology Society, Sydney, Australia. Apr 8-11, 2015.
- Varadharajan L. S., Shah A., and Pitchaimuthu K. "Contrast sensitivity equalization across retinal eccentricities using stimulus size scaling". Asia- ARVO 2013, New Delhi, India. Oct 28 - 31, 2013.
- Pitchaimuthu, K., Muthuramalingam, N., Annapurani, K., Ramani, K.K., Varadharajan L. S. Task evaluation of optometrists in Sankara Nethralaya. Oral presentation at the 6th Dr E Vaithilingam Memorial Scientific Session 2007, Chennai, India. Mar 25, 2007.
INVITED TALKS/WORKSHOPS
- Indian Optometric Association - 2020 annual conference (online lecture). Introduction to psychophysics. 4th December, 2020.
- Melbourne Eye and Vision Research Seminar (Melbourne, Australia). Effects of healthy ageing on visual cortical GABA levels and their association with visual performance. 20th March 2017.
- ESO International Vision science and Optometry Conference‐2010 (Chennai, India). Workshop on Basic Research Methodology. 12th August, 2010.
Publications
Article in journal (Refereed)
-
Sourav, S., Kekunnaya, R., Bottari, D., Shareef, I., Pitchaimuthu, K., et al. (2024). Sound suppresses earliest visual cortical processing after sight recovery in congenitally blind humans. Communications Biology. 7 (1).
Status: Published -
Bruns, P., Li, L., Guerreiro, M.J.S., Shareef, I., Rajendran, S.S., et al. (2022). Audiovisual spatial recalibration but not integration is shaped by early sensory experience. iScience. 25 (6).
Status: Published -
Pitchaimuthu, K., Dormal, G., Sourav, S., Shareef, I., Rajendran, S.S., et al. (2021). Steady state evoked potentials indicate changes in nonlinear neural mechanisms of vision in sight recovery individuals. Cortex. 144. 15-28.
Status: Published -
Rajendran, S.S., Bottari, D., Shareef, I., Pitchaimuthu, K., Sourav, S., et al. (2020). Biological Action Identification Does Not Require Early Visual Input for Development. eNeuro. 7 (5).
Status: Published