Neuro-Ophthalmology & Oculomotor Disorders

Eye movements provide a powerful window into the function of the nervous system. Abnormalities of pupillary responses, gaze fixation, ocular convergence, smooth pursuit, saccades, ocular alignment, and vestibulo-ocular function can reveal dysfunction throughout the brain—from discrete brainstem nuclei and cerebellar structures to the thalamus, basal ganglia, cerebral cortex, cranial nerves, and interconnected ocular motor networks.

Dr. Funk brings extensive Neuro-Ophthalmology and Oculomotor Disorders training from his neurological residency and eight years of postdoctoral neurological residency and subspecialty education. Over years of training and clinical practice, he performed thousands of videonystagmography (VNG) examinations and substantial quantitative saccadometry testing. Although he does not currently use these technologies in his clinic, that experience developed an unusually sophisticated ability to analyze eye movements clinically and recognize subtle abnormalities that reveal where neurological dysfunction may lie.

Dr. Funk systematically analyzes pupillary responses, gaze fixation and gaze-holding, ocular convergence, smooth pursuit, multiple forms of saccadic eye movements, ocular alignment and coordination, and vestibulo-ocular interactions. He does not simply document that an eye movement is abnormal—he uses the pattern of abnormality to localize dysfunction to specific brain regions, nuclei, neural pathways, and networks. Different abnormalities can reveal dysfunction across cortical visual-motion regions, frontal and parietal eye fields, basal ganglia, thalamic pathways, pontine and midbrain circuitry, vestibular nuclei, and specific cerebellar structures.

This level of neurological localization becomes particularly powerful in complex patients. Dr. Funk integrates Neuro-Ophthalmology with Brain Injury Medicine, Vestibular Neurology, Dysautonomia, Neuroimmunology, Vascular Neurology, Movement Disorders, Neurodegenerative Neurology, and Neuroimaging to place ocular motor findings within the patient’s complete neurological picture. Oculomotor abnormalities may provide critical localization information in traumatic brain injury and concussion, vestibular disorders, vascular disease, inflammatory and autoimmune neurological disease, demyelinating disorders, movement disorders, and neurodegenerative disease rather than existing as an isolated “vision problem.”

Localization then drives treatment. Dr. Funk designs individualized neurological and neuro-optometric rehabilitation to target the specific dysfunctional brain regions, nuclei, pathways, and neural networks identified during the examination. Treatment may incorporate precisely selected convergence and vergence rehabilitation, saccadic and smooth-pursuit training, gaze stabilization, vestibulo-ocular rehabilitation, visual-motor integration, individualized vestibular rehabilitation, and other forms of targeted neuromodulation according to the patient’s neurological findings.

The goal is not simply to exercise the eyes. Dr. Funk uses the ocular motor system as both an advanced diagnostic window into neurological function and a powerful pathway for neurological rehabilitation—using precise localization to direct neuroplasticity toward the specific brain regions, nuclei, neural pathways, and networks that require neurological rehabilitation.